A recent CNN tech article has reported that Apple is filing a lawsuit against HTC for allegedly infringing on its patents found in the iPhone. CNN columnist Marguerite Reardon weighed in, saying, “only one
company may have been named, but Jobs & Co. were issuing a legal warning to nearly every company that's released an iPhone-like device.” This could be a single incident or just one of many similar actions taken by Apple to solidify its footing in the Smartphone market, and while this is a substantial move on Apple’s behalf, it raises a number of questions regarding the decision.
Why HTC? According to Reardon, Apple may have chosen HTC for several reasons. “For one, HTC is a relatively small and young company when compared with some of its handset rivals, which means it has less money for a long legal battle. And it likely has fewer patents that can be used to countersue Apple,” said Reardon. The most obvious reason can be found in this excerpt of the article:
“Another likely major reason that HTC was picked: it is currently Apple's biggest threat. HTC was the first handset maker to start making Android phones. It sells five today, and it announced two more Android devices at Mobile World Congress last month: the HTC Legend and the HTC Desire.
These phones feature the latest Android software…In addition to its growing Android portfolio, HTC also manufactures about 80 percent of the phones that use the Windows Mobile software. And it will likely be the first handset maker to come out with a Smartphone using the new Windows Phone 7 operating system, which is specifically designed for touch screen phones could pose a threat to the iPhone.
Apple has good reason to be nervous about Android. Market researchers, such as IDC, are predicting that Google's Android will grow its market share faster than any other Smartphone operating system over the next five years. By 2013 IDC predicts that the software will be the second most used Smartphone operating system throughout the world.”
If Apple is successful in this case, who’s next? Motorola, Samsung, and Sony-Ericsson are speculated targets that could find themselves in a similar situation. This may be a valuable opportunity given to these companies by Apple to completely separate themselves from any questionable content on their phone’s operating systems and features so they don’t have to undergo the same chain of events. Google and Microsoft are also mentioned in the article, but being that both Microsoft and Google have strong relationships with Apple (as noted in the article), Apple may avoid this confrontation altogether.
This event may be as simple as Apple firing a warning shot to the entire industry at the expense of an overmatched and incomparable company, or again, this may be the beginning of a long and exhaustive effort to permanently separate itself from the competitors. Does Apple have a legitimate argument or are they desperately throwing their weight in hopes of stifling serious competitors?
Here's the article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/04/cnet.apple.patent/index.html?hpt=Mid
1 comment:
Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO comments by saying, “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it, We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
This is becoming a common theme with all the new technology rising. I think it will be interesting to see the arguments brought by Apple's lawyers. Perhaps this lawsuit could become a good thing. Apple did spend the time and money to get their patent to be the original. Apple will definately have to prove their originality, but this will hopefully have other competitors paying more attention to research that must be done first.
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