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Apple Inc marketing chief Phil Schiller attacked Google Inc's "fragmented" Android software and its biggest adopter, Samsung Electronics, a day before the Korean firm takes the wraps off its latest flagship smartphone in the United States.

South Korean phone-maker Samsung loses another patent fight against rival Apple, in the UK High Court.

A federal judge on Friday slashed nearly half of the $1 billion damage award a jury ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Apple Inc. after a high-profile trial over the rights to the design and technology running some of the world's most popular smartphones and tablet computers. U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh lowered the damages awarded to Apple Inc. by $450.5 million for 14 Samsung products including some products in its hot-selling Galaxy lineup, saying jurors had not properly followed her instruction in calculating some of the damages.

Apple Inc lost a major ruling in its ongoing patent battle with Samsung Electronics on Friday, as a federal judge threw out part of a jury's $1.05 billion damages award against Samsung over a variety of phone products.

Hedge fund manager David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital has dropped its lawsuit against Apple Inc after winning a battle to stop the iPhone maker from a shareholder vote on a proposal to abolish its ability to issue preferred shares at its discretion.

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook acknowledged on Wednesday that his shareholders were disappointed with a five-month slide of more than 30 percent in the company's share price, but urged a focus on the longer term.

Apple is experimenting with designs for a watch-like device that would perform some functions of a smartphone, as part of explorations of potentially large product categories beyond the smartphone and tablet.

Apple has become the leading U.S. mobile-phone vendor for the first time last quarter, securing a record 34% of market share, and knocking rival Samsung off the top spot. The Cupertino, Calif., company shipped 17.7 million phones during the fourth quarter, growing 4% annually, according to a new report by research firm Strategy Analytics. For comparison; that number jumped from 12.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, when Apple captured 25% of the market.

The launch of the iPhone 5 and the declining popularity of non-smartphones have made Apple the biggest seller of phones in the U.S. for the first time, research firm Strategy Analytics said Friday.

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected Apple Inc's request to revive its bid for a sales ban on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, dashing the iPhone maker's attempt to recover crucial leverage in the global patent wars.