Oh it is on!
March 16th, 2010 | 
Commodore128
Commodore128
Big Huge Amazing Image Credit: Daniel Adel, New York Times
Now this image of Steve jobs and Eric Schmidt kung fu fighting says it all doesn’t it? Folks, the war between two tech giants has started, and the winner has yet to be determined. Read on to hear the Commodore’s thoughts on the Apple/HTC lawsuit. If you don’t care a lick about the future of computers, OS, mobile phones and applications, or user interfaces; or if your current cellphone predates the millennium and you like it that way, then maybe you should stop reading now and go find a rock to live under until the zombie apocalypse destroys all modern technology as we know it.
We all know how this thing started right? Microsoft was the enemy. Or at least it was that necessary evil that Apple and the (never evil… *cough*) Google put up with in their push for innovation and, at the very least, new ways to make money. Google and Apple were happy fun time friends. We all had visions of these two playing nice, riding a bicycle built for two, building sand-castles on the beach, and licking vanilla ice-cream cones as they strolled merrily through the often ugly and deceptive tech world. Ok well this is what I envisioned, but what can I say? I’m a sick and deluded individual. The point however remains; these two companies were certainly buddy-buddy as they built the foundations of the future of the technology world. Eric Schmidt was on the board of Apple for crying out loud. How did we get from tandem bikes to kung fu fights? Well it all has to do with phones, and more specifically the technology that allows these phones to do amazing things.
Jim Goldman, CNBC Silicon Valley Chief said yesterday that at current “Apple is at diametric opposites” from Google. According to Goldman and others the problems at hand between the companies stems from Google’s entry into the mobile phone business not just as a software developer with its (increasingly popular) Android OS, but with the far more brazen Nexus One (built by HTC) which is marketed, and sold by Google. According to Steve Jobs this was the throwing down of the gauntlet by Google. “We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them” Jobs said to a group of employees at a town hall meeting in Cupertino in late January. I’ll translate for you gamers out there: “quit TKing Goog!” Google’s response: “lol U mad?”
Well actually Google stayed pretty quiet until Apple sited the illegitimate use of 20 Apple held patents in suing HTC, the world’s preeminent (and thus far successful) adopter of Android in early March. Google simply said, “We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.” The patents named between this litigation and the massive complaint Apple lodged with the ITC are all over the map ranging from UI elements, to kernel level processor handling and range from 1995 to 2009. Yikes. Evidently When Steve saw the gauntlet thrown by Google, he made sure his answer resonated with them and the entirety of the tech world.
Here are some thoughts that I have about this whole rigmarole.
Love them or hate them, Apple has innovated the mobile space with the iPod and the iPhone. Yes they maybe sorta stole patents from Xerox Park Research. But the fact is that Apple reengineered the way we use mobile devices, which I would argue is their greatest contribution to new technology. The fact is that Apple just wanted to control this market a bit longer. Needless to say they’re a bit miffed in Google’s (and others’) success. In other words, Apple’s lost its stranglehold, and Google is now their biggest competitor.
I am an ardent believer in intellectual property and the protection it carries with it. If Apple is indeed correct in its assertion that HTC or anyone else is stealing their IP, then these properties should be protected and those responsible for the infringement should be punished. Only a court can decide this and frankly, I’ll leave it to them.
Google is first and foremost a company built around their ability to offer the best search solution to the public and therefore valuable advertising. There is talk now that bing will replace Google as the default search engine offered on the iPad as well as the iPhone. A Microsoft product set as the default on an Apple product. Hell must be awfully cold right now… Someone hold me.
Along with that thought, Microsoft and Apple could be BFFs now with a common enemy in Google. Being a Mac guy at heart, this makes me more than a little uncomfortable. Didn’t we all really love Macs because Microsoft was evil with their Orwellian control over everything they gave us? Has Apple become the new Big Brother they so famously rallied against?
Not the least of Apple’s innovations is unique user interface. Now that UI is not so unique as other companies start to rethink how OSs should look, function, and something that before seemingly only Apple thought of: feel. They need to do this legitimately with their own technologies, but the fact is that Apple’s incredible UI of the iPod and iPhone is just not as stellar next to the competition as it used to be.
This is just the latest in a string of happenings that has proven to me beyond the shadow of a doubt that I am in fact a Mac guy, NOT and Apple guy. The difference is massive and more apparent than ever. I love Macintosh computers and their form and function. I really don’t like Apple products. I’ve never owned and iPod and I really can’t see getting an iPhone. Don’t even get me started on iPad. Android is very exciting technology and I think that’s the bandwagon I’m sticking with. Open software FTW!
So where does this leave all of us?
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That's right Spock! For the consumers! |
Well in truth, the real winner of all of this could very well be us the consumers. Innovation is the direct result of healthy competition. Even if Apple finds a way to put the squeeze on Google through all of this, it just means that Google (and all of its new happy fun time friends) will have to find new ways to innovate in the mobile space. Innovation = Consumer WIN. Other adopters of Android, like Motorola and its DROID for example, will undoubtedly take notice of the proceedings here and make crucial design and implementation decisions that could help to create better, faster, and cheaper devices for all of us to enjoy in the future. |
And on a personal note, I’m rooting against Apple for the first time in my life with this complaint and lawsuit. And while I can slowly wash the dirtiness of this feeling from my being, I can’t erase the fantastic memories that Apple, mostly through Macintosh, have provided for me over the years. And I’m left with questions for my long time hero Steve Jobs: When in the hell are you guys going to make something that replaces both the Macbook AND the various iPod clones instead of having to produce something in the “space in between?” Can we finally have computers that simply work and look the way they really should in the 21st century instead of these netbook-esque feaux devices?
Who knows when the lawsuit, or these questions will be resolved. But one thing is clear to me about Apple, the company that I’ve loved since childhood, and their control over how people use the internet. They don’t think so different anymore.
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