Apple vs. Palm: Geeks with grudges
The bad blood between Apple (AAPL) and Palm (PALM) that bubbled to the surface last week has a history that long predates Palm's launch of the Pre, a smartphone that flatters Apple more sincerely than any of the other iPhone imitators.
When asked at Apple's earnings call last Wednesday how the iPhone was going to going to stay ahead of competitors nipping at its heels, you could hear the heat in acting CEO Tim Cook's answer.
"We think competition is good. It makes us all better. And we are ready to suit up and go against anyone.
"However," he added, his voice rising, "we will not stand for having our IP [intellectual property] ripped off, and we'll use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal. I don't know that I can be clearer than that." (link)
Cook had been asked about the Pre's multi-touch interface, whose technology Steve Jobs insists is heavily protected by multiple patents and which other iPhone competitors — Google's (GOOG) Android, for example — have been careful not to use.
Palm was quick to respond to what it perceived as a shot across its bow.
"If faced with legal action," a spokesperson told Digital Daily, "we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves."
But the bad blood between Palm and Apple goes deeper than a patent dispute, as my colleague Brent Schlender presciently pointed out when the venture capitalists at Elevation Partners made their first big investment in Palm — a $325 million cash infusion just a few weeks before the iPhone hit the market.
In a column written at the time of the loan, Schlender noted that both the giver — Elevation partner Fred Anderson — and the receiver — Palm executive chairman Jon Rubenstein — had long, complex relationships with Apple.
Anderson, who was Apple's CFO from 1996 to 2004, before he became a venture capitalist, had just reached a settlement with the SEC over his alleged role in backdating Apple stock options — including hundreds of millions of dollars worth for Steve Jobs. At the time of his settlement, Schlender reminds us, Anderson "denied any wrongdoing, paid a fine, and issued a vaguely antagonistic statement disputing Jobs’s account of the options backdating. Clearly Anderson felt he had been thrown under the train."
Rubenstein's relationship with Jobs is even older and more complex. It dates back to 1990, when Jobs asked him to run hardware engineering at NeXT. Rubinstein came to Apple with Jobs' return in 1997 and played a key role in developing some of the revitilized company's most profitable products. As Schlender tells it:
"Rubinstein … who was instrumental in developing the iMac, the PowerBook, the Power Macintosh, and the iPod, retired quietly a little over a year ago, on April Fools Day, 2006 — the 30th birthhday of Apple. Interestingly, about six months before that, he gave a rare interview to the Berliner Zeitung in which he threw water on the idea of converging a cellphone and an iPod media player into a single device — basically what is now the iPhone. “Is there a toaster that also knows how to brew coffee?” he asked. 'There is no such combined device, because it would not make anything better than an individual toaster or coffee machine,' Rubinstein argued. 'It works the same way with the iPod, the digital camera or mobile phone: it is important to have specialized devices.'
"Strange words, considering that Apple’s iPod group was already working on what would become the iPhone. Stranger still, when you look back and see that Apple publicly announced Rubinstein’s upcoming 'retirement' less than three weeks after that interview. I think you can safely surmise that Ruby, who had been with Jobs for more than 15 years at both NeXT and Apple, wasn’t on the same page with his boss." (link)
At the unveiling of the Pre at the Consumer Electronics Show three weeks ago, Rubinstein introduced the device by first talking about how he retreated with his family to Mexico after he left Apple to lick his wounds — a surprisingly personal way to launch a new cellphone. (You can watch him here in the Palm-supplied video that shows us more of Rubinstein than we ever saw in his years at Apple.)
Once at Palm, it didn't take Rubinstein long to start raiding his former employer for engineering and marketing talent — including senior vice president for product development Mike Bell (a 16-year Apple veteran), director of software Chris McKillop (of the iPhone and iPod team), and spokesperson Lynn Fox (out of Apple PR).
So did Palm, in fact, rip off Apple's intellectual property? Patent attorneys could be arguing that question for years to come. Meanwhile, Palm partisans have begun laying the groundwork for their defense, leaking to reporters a white paper prepared by Microsoft's Bill Buxton that traces the history of multi-touch back to IBM's Type and N-key Rollover. (link)
Meanwhile, the exuberance with which the tech press initially greeted the Pre (it won Best in Show and rave reviews, for example here and here) is being tempered by the sour reaction of Apple partisans. Perhaps the sourest of the lot is Daniel Eran Dilger's long screed in Roughly Drafted Magazine, in which he repeatedly refers the still-unreleased Pre as a "demo" and compares it to a "bald man's combover." (See The Emperor's New Phone.)
The Pre is scheduled to go on sale in the first half of 2009. A price point has not been announced, although outsiders have speculated that it will be somewhere between $249 and $399. The iPhone retails for $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB).
RE: MULTI-CARRIER OWNER, OKLAHOMA CITY OK: What are you talking about? "Entourage" is written by Microsoft and is part of hte Microsoft Office Suite for the Mac. That is not Apple. Apple copies because there is "Firefox", "Thunderbird", "Word", "Excel" and Entourage? Apple has "Mail". That is the mail program for the Mac. If you want Outlook for the Mac, well that is Entourage and is written and sold by Microsoft. Entourage is going to be replaced with Outlook for the Mac. Entourage actually replaced Outlook for the Mac originally. Nothing to do with Apple.
You will be able to watch Live TV on your iphone, perform turn by turn navigation, run more than one major (native) app at a time,
The iPhone has and exchange client built in, so you can use that. You can surf the web better on the iPhone than any other smartphone. Pandora? I don't know yet, but it is likely not Apple's fault if you can't at this time. You will probably be able to soon anyway. Were you expecting Apple to roll out an iPhone that incorporates every feature form every smartphone ever made, right off the bat? Planet Earth, remember?
RE: zurich switzerland: Palm was first with touchscreen 15 years ago and didn't get any better in those 15 years. Palm is struggling for a reason. The issue isn't "touch". The issue is "Multi-Touch gestures". The Pre is a copy of the iPhone because the iPhone is the best. That is where Gates came up with Windows in the first place. It was another bad copy of the Apple OS. The Pre is another bad copy of the Apple iPhone. I have a Palm Treo in my pocket right now. The thing sucks and my iPhone should be here within a week. You sound like a Palm fanboy. Apple holds pretty much all the patents on multi-touch, which Palm KNOWS about. Palm thinks that they can get around the Apple patents. Well, good luck. The Pre OS still sucks in comparison to the iPhone OS, so I am not worried about head to head competition. THe problem is people like you will say the Pre is as good as the iPhone and some idiot will buy the Pre because you falsely equated the two devices. I've not heard the term "Pre killer", ever. How many devices were touted as attempts to be an "iPhone killer". That's because the iPhone is king of the hill. Even though Blackberry is the top dog, nobody is talking about the Blackberry killer. That is rather illuminating, isn't it? Not just "fanboys" creating that environment. The iPhone actually is better.
Wow! The ignorance towards Palm is amazing.
Lets all get three things strait. It was Palm who 1st decided to make a convergence device that allows you to leave your laptop at home. The iPhone never technically beat palm's Treo which was officially in 1st place before the i-hype and Apples touch is almost exactly the same consept as Palm’s Tungsteens although they were marketed differently. It’s the same device but Palms to this day has way more applications. Come on people, don’t you remember what the Starbucks crowd was using before Apple came along? I’m figuring all the I worship is coming from people under the age of 26 & apple fanboys ( I never liked apple fanboys). A really annoying bunch of sissies who think they know everything & don’t know Poop about anything because they worship every syllable out of Steve Jobs mouth.
Hello, Palm was First with a touch screen like 15 years ago!
@ Boberino, you say apple doesn't copy anyone huh? Apple using the main application called Entourage? A lot of mac users loving that, oh it's Microsoft Entourage….Apple is 1 track minded: Can you watch Live TV on your iphone 3gs, can you perform turn by turn navigation? Can you run more than one major (native) app on the iphone at the same time, who doesn't multi-task today? I use my exchange account, surf the web and listen to pandora (techno) all at the same time!!
Im glad theres so many passionate people in the world who can comment on either type of phone. There is an endless supply of people who are more than willing to have a $100 monthly phone bill which will keep any company in business regardless of what anyones opinion of the product is even though the ultimate function of a phone is to make phone calls.
Unbiased opinions are obviously sacred and rare on this comment board. I have an iphone and it is just an overrated ipod. It has sleek designing and is very addictive once in your hands. BUT IT SUCKS AS A PHONE (which is what it is supposed to be). I'm glad palm matched the iphone and will be transferring to verizon in the winter. Between the Pre and the next generation Storm there will finally be alternative choices.
Go ahead cult, rip this comment apart on your $1,500 macbook
Apple makes the best products. They are the innovators while others are followers. The PRE is a perfect example. It tries to copy iPhone. Vista tries to copy Mac OS. Zune tries to copy iPod. None copies Apple well. You never see Apple trying to copy others. When you are the Porsche on the block you have to expect the Fords to be resentful. I'm sure Apple is used to it.
Forget the tech specs, this is all about market positioning. Sprint's Pre will fail because Sprint holds the professional Nextel crowd. Think construction workers. The Pre will not fly, and Apple was smart to go with GSM – though its slower, it is the cost saving alternative and (T-mobile, At&t and Cricket) serve predominantly young people…their target market. Johnny just planted another Apple seed – in young consumers.
Bite the hand that feeds you. He has $26 million from Apple. Now, he's at war with them. Unbelievable. Should have stayed in Mexico. He definitely is no Steve Jobs.
ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS: LINUX WEB OS, FASTEST DATA NETWORK, SYNERGY, DIGITAL CDMA TOWERS CAN HOLD MORE CUSTOMERS PER TOWER RATIO 4:1 TO GSM. FACT CHECK, NO OPINIONS BECAUSE OF SUBLIMINAL SUBCONSCIOUS BIAS ATTITUDE. YOU TALK ABOUT A COMPANY LIKE THEY HAVE NO RIGHT TO IMPROVE? OR CONDEMN THE COMPANY BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY GOT BETTER. LET ME ASK THIS QUESTION: “HOW MANY APPLICATIONS ON THE IPHONE CAN YOU RUN SIMULTANEOUSLY?” AND IF YOU HAVE NOT TRIED NOR TESTED TO COMPARE, THEN DO NOT RESPOND WITH FALSE INFORMATION. ON THE PALM PRE’, I RAN 8 APPLICATIONS AT THE SAME TIME(SIMULTANEOUSLY) WITHOUT IT CRASHING OR EVEN BECOMING BOGGED DOWN. THE APPLICATIONS I RAN ARE THE FOLLOWING: FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, PANDORA, CNN.COM, SI.COM, GOOGLE.COM, SPRINT NAVIGATION, AND SPRINT TV. I RAN THOSE OS RESOURCE HEAVY APPLICATIONS JUST TO SEE HOW STRONG THE PHONE REALLY IS. LINUX DID WHAT IS DESIGN TO DO.
All of the partisan muck needs to stop. If there was only one company providing phones, the iphone would cost a grand.
All of this bickering in stupid. If you like the iphone buy it, if you like the Pre (or some other) buy it.
This nonsense between PC and Apple is just insane.
Get over it and just use whichever (or both).
Simple as that.
@ Eric, Kalamazoo
Sorry but your completely wrong there the Pre is both Windows and Mac compatible. The emulator version of Pre's Web OS works on mac for one, not to mention the Pre will sync just like the iPhone to iTunes on a Mac. Get your facts straight before making a fool of yourself for being an uninformed apple fan-boy
A successful phone must first be a phone even before giving best DEMO award at CES. First Principles.
If Pre fixes iPhone keyboard and SPRINT fixes ATT brittle network PALM wins. Pre matches Blackberry functionality without the proprietary sandbox it can crack RIM's Business.
I keep my BB, own an iPhone, PSION (symbian) and use a candybar Nokia because they all work best at what they do. Rubenstein gets it.
Pre may be a game changer with WebOS.
To be precise, the iPhone can only be programmed using Objective C. But this isn't a limitation, as discovered belatedly by the competition.
Note to ML: people don't buy the iPhone because it's phone, they buy it because it's a computer platform with thousands of apps. The phone function is almost an afterthought. Look at the iPhone ads (TV or print) to see the capabilities of this "phone." You have FM radio. I have an iPhone app that gets radio stations from all over the U.S., and all over the world. Recording video will come soon enough.
Reason # 1 that the iPhone is vastly superior to the Pre. It works with Mac OS X. The Pre Windows only. It should be called the Pre-birth.
With all honestly I believe the iphone is a good phone but so are other phones. LG and Nokia have great phones, unfortunately some of these phones are not sold through a US network carrier, only via internet unblocked. Nokia for example has has great phones with mp3 player capabilites. But we are a nation to purchase phone through carriers that are blocked, locking us through a contract and only able to use that carrier. iphone owners talk so much how better there phones are, but I must say it lacks several things that my Nokia phone has, including FM radio and FM transmitter, as well being able to load any 3rd party applications, and being able to record video. But marketing does alot for a product and Apple has done a great job in that department we must admit.
When reading the negative comments left about the iPhone, I wonder just how many that left those comments have actually owned or used an iPhone. Palm has seen it's glory days, Windows is the evil Empire with little inovation and the rest are playing catch up. Thanks to Apple for setting the bar, it will improve all Smart Phones developed and we will all reap the benefits!
I think that people need to stop fixating on the concept that originality and innovation is about the authorship of a particular idea. I agree that Apple should be not take credit for 'inventing' much. But an idea alone doesn't amount to much without meaningful implementation. It's really here that Apple has the advantage and can claim superior authorship. They don't want to play the game of who has the longer list of bells and whistles if it's at the expense of ease of use and functionality. How they chose to implement may not be for everybody…virtual vs physcial as an example…but their focus on the value of a well engineered 'sum of all parts' is what wins my support and money. This is not fan-boi speak…it's discerning consumer speak from someone who cares about a well designed product and user experience. I'm the first person the point out the iPhones problems (or the problems with any of Apple's other products for that matter). If someone else comes out with something better, I'll get it. But re smartphones, I'm just not seeing it happen yet. (I should mention that I think that RIMM is an exception, ignoring the Storm. Just not my cup of tea).
All that said, the Pre has caught my interest. It looks to have potential and I will take a look. But I think it's laughable the extent of their claim at innovation. I think that there are some new things going on here which are exciting, if they work. But I don't think that their innovation footprint is as big as they are claiming. It seems pretty obvious that without the iPhone, there would have been no Pre.
Google Roger McNamee.
It is put forward WebOS and the Pre are the next generation for computing, designed specifically for the mobile form factor, not taken from a desktop and squeezed into a smaller box.
Supposedly apps already developed for other platforms (incl iPhone) can be ported to Pre.
Elevation sunk in an add'l $100m in Dec. after an initial $325m investment and Palm hit a homerun @CES when no one expected anything. The queue for development was Palm, Elevation\McNamee, Rubinstein. Unless Elevation\McNamee are total fools and full of hubris I would think they have anticipated the hurdles and have a gameplan. From what I've read and seen recently McNamee is a pretty smart guy and not to be taken lightly, he certainly doesn't seem to take himself too seriously.
I'm a old time Palm user & fan, I think there a lot of others out there like me and I'm keeping an open mind. I've been looking into smartphones because I'm interested in mobile fast internet, iPhone certainly isn't out of consideration. I find it interesting that more of the iPhone camp is quick with insults, why? Can't we just discuss on the pros and cons?
Of course this is all moot until the Pre is actually released…
Better is a relative term. My creative Zen Vision is a much better mp3 player. It's simpler, quicker, and easier to manage and navigate through my music and the battery life is far better.
Now it clearly doesn't have as many features, but for the one feature I wanted, it's superior.
The iphone, and nowadays, Apple have created nothing new in years. The touch screen, made famous by Palm, modified to multitouch. The automatically rotating screen, utilized by my 3 year old digital camera. Itunes, a more expensive knockoff of Kazaa and Limewire(and yes, I'm talking about the legal non-free music they sold). Tell me this, who pays .99 per mp3? Because that adds up to $18 on a standard cd that you could have picked up for $5-6.
Even the main menu on the iphone looks an awful lot like the layout of Palm pilots. Wireless browsing? Sure they have the best out, but they weren't the first. Recently mac advertised an awesome new feature, music recognition, so that your iphone can recognize a song it hears off the radio! New? Only to the iphone. Remember Verizon's V Cast Song ID?
Let's also bear in mind, that like most things Apple does, it's completely proprietary. Locked into att's more expensive services. Go ahead and try to unlock yours, and they'll break it for you, claiming that that iphone you bought doesn't actually belong to you.
Also, as far as some advantages… Palm has had 3rd party programs across the web since the dawn of its existence in the early nineties. My palm III was perfect for games and email. Also it synchronizes perfectly with windows media player and microsoft stores, so apps and itunes are matched.
Apple did a good job with it's iphone, but the company is highly afraid that it can't withstand competition, and so are it's fanboys. Unfortunately for Apple, filing lawsuits against the competition isn't going to keep them on top for long and doesn't help to attract those of us already enjoying alternatives to the iphone.
By the way, people call ipods ipods because they're called ipods. I call my creative a creative and my sansa a sansa, and my brother calls his zune a zune. Don't be retarded Brian, because your response has no more facts than the one you commented on, making you a fanboy troll as well.
Apple simply stood on the shoulders of geniuses and took the next step.
Fellows… Ever heard of the "First Mover Advantage"?
Apple is going to continue to grab market share not only because of sophisticated yet simple-to-use and superior devices, but with their business model build around those devices (itunes music store & app store). One entry earlier in this column mentioned some of the strengths of their business model.
Fact is that through itunes they enjoy a strong competitive advantage and that advantage has been used to power the sales of their hardware. They lock in customers and increase their switching costs. Simple but brilliant.
Now, enough said about their business model, to sum it all up… Apple devices are simply better in most aspects. I give you that there are little things that critics always find to feed on but the bottom line still remains unchanged. Apple is simply the best.
Once growth-rates in the media player market erode, based on the notion of
>Apple is a great PR act, Not an originator. The IPOD was a >rip off ofa dozen better devices…
Please. No other company even comes remotely close to originating, championing, and successfully bringing a mature version of any tech to market. Name just ONE of your so-called 'better' devices. Oh, right, you can't.
> Antiquated tools and the language and inability to develop on other than Mac platforms.
Tell this to the thousands of developers writing iPhone apps. Another flaming hater here.
> You think combining an MP3 player with a phone is new?
No, doing it like the iPhone does is something new. Wake up and realize the iPhone is far more than just a phone and and 'MP3 Player'. (BTW, no one calls them MP3 players, they call them iPods–for good reason.)
Finally, PED, the link to the Bill Buxton article is lame. Now THAT is a PR piece. Too bad Buxton only played with the ideas and never did anything with them. You know, something you can patent–like an iPhone. You can't patent an idea. And for him to say interfaces are about LOOK and FEEL is just a sad sad joke. MSFT got very lucky on the look and feel argument. It isn't going to fly this time.
Still, I found the article interesting, I didn't realize some of the history with Rubinstein, though I recall some of it. Jobs used to have him doing the 'megahertz myth' speech at Macworld, and it was widely ridiculed. Many that was when his relationship with Apple went south.
I think Rubenstein is going to be sued to oblivion. It looks to me that he doesn't have a leg to stand on, especially if he hired Apple's talent away and then came out with a very derivative product, that still has almost none of the key advantages of the iphone (OS, app store, iTunes).
Why do people become so attached to gadgets and their manufacturers that they want all other competitors to die? Are they so insecure about their purchase decisions? It's a big world and there is plenty of room for choice.
Apple is a great PR act, Not an originator. The IPOD was a rip off ofa dozen better devices, just better hyped. The iphone, while good for some and is innovative has only recently morphed into a smart phone. By paying developers to mimic most of the apps already available for other phones and putting them in one store, it has herded the sheep int the pen.
The pre is set to go onto sprint for the broad band they are building. It's called a long term outlook, something a company shoud use rather than reactionary moves.
Add on devices? Try a revamped Folio on NOVA. Retool the slew of medical apps and the data scanning/transfer apps available ( seen an Iphone do 128 bar code? NOT!)in legacy PALM devices. and Apple is pushed back in it's corner.
Apple trolls should remember, this is the company that started the hand held device revolution and with new blood comes new ideas that can work well beyond games and messaging. You are only King until sombody overthrows you.
"After watching part of that cheese video I can safely conclude that he is no Steve Jobs …."
why?! does he have to be?!..
Developers may want to work for the device with the best development platform, but they WILL work for the device with the greatest chance of actually making money. BTW, everything I've read says the iPhone development platform is at least as good as any of the other platforms. Sorry if Apple is so mean/shortsighted that they force you to use a Mac. (Oh the humanity of it all!)
Let me know when the first solo Android, Palm, WinMobile, or Symbian developer makes $250K:
Also let me know when any of those platforms reach 500 million downloads in six months.
Would you rather write code for a device that guarantees a potential user base of >30 million (not to mention iPod touches) all with same OS/screen size/interface/ or take a chance on software for a yet unreleased device (Palm), unproven device (Android) where there could be umpteen variations on the hardware:
http://www.kogan.com.au/blog/2009/jan/16/kogan-agora-be-delayed/
I'm just sayin'
To those who think that Apple is years ahead with iPhone/Pod and cannot be defeated, should look at its developer story. To put it simply – it sucks. Antiquated tools and the language and inability to develop on other than Mac platforms. Google's Android development is much much better and so it may win in the end, since the history shows (PCs vs Macs) that even though people like good design, a device with the best development environment wins since developers want to work for it. iPhone/Pod would be a dull device with applications for it. So far (in the absence of other devices) they were able to attract devs, but this may change faster than Apple will be able to react (and it is not easy to change your dev story once you are stuck with your APIs).
I really don't think Apple should be Palm's biggest worry, instead they should be looking at Sprint. Here are a few takes from news today about Sprint, the exclusive U.S. provider for the new touch-screen smartphone from Palm:
* …shares are still down over 70 percent from a year earlier as the company struggled to stem customer losses due to service problems, weak marketing and an economic downturn…
*…the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider, will cut up to 8,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce…
*… planning a cost-cutting program for the board in January that might include layoffs, more outsourcing and a reduction in network expansion plans…
Yea that sound like a solid EXCLUSIVE partner to market a product many believe is a make or break shot for the company. Losing subscribers every month – laying off employees – reducing network expansion yep that sound wonderful for the future of the Pre and Palm.
The problem with Palm (and WinMo, Symbian, Android, etc.) is that Apple now has started creating it's own weather around the iPhone with:
1. Huge accessories market
2. All the Apple retail stores, Walmart & AT&T stores selling iPhones, Target and Best Buy selling iPod touches.
3.App store, 500 million downloads and 15,000 apps. This is HUGE and the other handset makers better come up with something quickly.
4. iPod touch sales have exploded recently, further expanding the market for apps
5. iTunesMusic store is a one-stop-shop for music, movies, TV shows, apps, podcasts, news, etc.
Back in 1984 Apple's Mac was eclipsed by big business betting on IBM, lack of compatibility with it's own Apple II user base, horrendous management and artificially overpriced hardware. Apple was also almost completely dependent on Microsoft and others to provide 3rd party software solutions to do anything significant with a Mac. When Microsoft tried to kill Quicktime, Apple realized they needed to control their own destiny. Now Apple has Final Cut, iWork, iLife, Safari, Logic, Webobjects, Apple Server, Mail, Calendar, iTunes.
The iPhone will not be eclipsed by WinMo anytime soon. That is laughable. WinMo has absolutely no leverage with the handset makers like DOS/Windows did with the desktop OS. I doubt anyone will become a dominant player like Windows did in in the computer market. The handset market is completely different.
You think combining an MP3 player with a phone is new? I've been doing that with PalmOS phones for quite a few years–before I ever heard of iPod. Apple just has a big marketing presence and propaganda machine to keep people brainwashed.
Why does everyone assume Apple is just sitting back doing nothing to the iPhone? Come June/July we shall see what Apple has been working on. I am sure then that Palm will be a whisper once again.
Just thinking about PED's contention that Apple and former Apple execs, now at Palm, are at loggerheads. It occurred to me that reading about the Papermaster lawsuit, John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote about the decision on what OS Apple used on the iPhone. According to Gruber's sources, Scott Forstall and Bertrand Serlet wanted to use Mac OS X, while Tony Fadell and Steve Sakoman wanted Linux. Sakoman is now working at GumStix, and Fadell is on gardening leave. Gumstix is interesting, because they make tiny motherboards that could fit inside a cellphone using an ARM core, based upon Linux. I wonder if Sakoman's GumStix is making the mobo for the Palm Pre? And, I wonder if Fadell's non-compete was to keep him from Palm, as well?
ex ped: Very interesting. Thanks.
The point has been made that Tim Cook's comments during the earnings report conference call specifically avoided mentioning Palm as a target for IP litigation.
I can see how some would interpret recent events as storm clouds gathering on the horizon, but there is a fair share of of the blog population that seems to WANT there to be eventful conflict between the two companies. Even going as far as (as seen in this article) detailing events in Steve Jobs' past that COULD lead to bad blood when, back in reality, it was Tim Cook that made the statements at issue in the first place. To say that Steve Jobs makes his personal grudges the grudges of Apple and then to say that Tim Cook would totally jump on board with a grudge like that (one that is not his personally, but the grudge of a close colleague) diminishes both Steve and Tim, I think.
ROY BIV'S CLOSED MIND
"Several dozen big players"?!? Dude, there aren't "several dozen big players". There may be several dozen mfrs. There may be a few big players, but there are NOT "several dozen big players". I mean, WinMo's two best friends have been Motorola and Palm. Motorola is the cell industry's sick man. Palm is going Nova. Nokia has Symbian. Blackberry has its OS. Apple has OS X. SonyEricsson uses a variant of Symbian. Who is left? HTC, Samsung and LG? Are there any other "big players"? Do you think any of those three want to put all of their eggs in WinMo7's basket?
This is nothing like 1984. Back then, MS was able to lock in the OEMs by punishing them if they loaded anyone else's OS on their products. Nowadays, MS is in a tough spot. They make very little selling a mobile OS. They compete against two free OSes, with deep pockets. Google and Nokia are not Linux. They compete against strong competitors, Blackberry, Nokia and Apple, who all have their own OSes.
There is no doubt that Apple will have to fight for their marketshare, as it should be, but they have far more firepower at hand than back in 1984. They have a desktop-class OS. None of the others have shown that, yet. Smartphones are evolving into handheld computers, and the OS and its GUI are key. Who has the most experience with desktop-class OSes and GUIs? Right.
If you think Palm is going to be a viable competitor, you are mistaken. They have made a promising start, but they have lots of hurdles to overcome before they are a serious competitor. One, they need money. Two, they need to put handsets with Nova into the market, so we can evaluate it without all the marketing fluff. Three, are web-based applets or widgets capable enough to match stand-alone apps for Android or OS X? Doubtful, highly doubtful. Four, can they get someone amongst the Big2, ATT and Verizon to carry a Nova-based phone? I mean, Palm can't even get the Treo Pro into any US-based carrier. Five, how do they stay afloat until the Pre comes out? I mean, who will buy a Centro knowing that the OS and phone will shortly be orphaned? The old Osborne Effect.
"a smartphone that flatters Apple more sincerely than any of the other iPhone imitators."
I think you've missed a serious focus of the Pre. It's not an iPhone immitator, it's leaps and bounds beyond the iPhone. Take 10 minutes to play with it and you'll understand what I mean.
STEVE'S CLOSED WORLD
This dispute with Palm is merely the opening salvo that is to come when Microsoft releases many new technologies in WinMo7 and beyond, whose phones will be manufactured by several dozen big players putting pressure on Apple. In many ways, we are back to 1984 again, where Microsoft's OS was running on many manufacturer's PC machines and the Mac OS only one. Apple fighting against Palm is a sign of bigger battles to come relative to the IPhone. Steve's Closed World will be challenged again.
RE: geoff, philadelphia: We are taking over and securely administering Windows servers, Linux servers and controlling our building environment with iphones from anywhere that we have a cellular or WiFi signal. Oh yeah, sometimes we make calls too, level a painting on the wall, you know, normal stuff. You are not doing that with your Pre or storm, are you? Ripped apart, at your request.