by Pat Munro)
Recently, we saw a lawsuit by Apple against the Taiwanese phone maker HTC. It was not surprising to most, since most of us who are paying attention knew there would be some problems with the new Google Android system. It is interesting though, that Apple went after a rising smartphone company instead of the multi-billion dollar earning Google. As these lawsuits go, it will undoubtedly take several years and many millions of dollars before it even reaches the court system, let alone a judgment. But why HTC? Lets investigate.
-Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, has been quoted as 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."
Apple is a huge company, bearing a huge household name. HTC on the other hand, is not a name most have heard of until last week. Apple and iPhones are inseperatable, whereas HTC and Google Android have just recently launched within the past year. HTC is the maker of the first Google Android powered handset, which acts similarly to the functioning of the iPhone. Access to apps, emails, outlook, anything and everything an iPhone does a Google Android phone can do. You may think that Apple took its sweet time to launch this lawsuit, and its not against the monster of Google and its technology, but its against the actual phone manufacturers technology.
It may be that Apple went for HTC because the Taiwanese company is on the rise. HTC released myTouch 3G for T-Mobile last year and its sales are soaring. It is also the maker of the Google Android Nexus One, which is getting tones of attention from consumers. Why are the Nexus Ones sales booming? Might it be because in our consumer climate, consumers like competition, comparison and choice? Apple has a monopoly on the smartphone frontier and in my opinion consumers want and will support competition every time.
In this lawsuit Apple has claimed that HTC has infringed on 20 of its patents, including touch-screens, sensors and lighting. Although Google developed and made the operating system, Apple has gone after the hardware. This in my opinion is a tactical move, considering Apple itself is embroiled in a lawsuit with the Finnish company Nokia Corp. Nokia claims they developed the technology presently being used by Apple Industrys iPhone. Apple is filing a countersuit, and so on, and so on, and so on..
In my opinion this whole technological ownership is a moot point. Companies have lawyers and thats what lawyers do, they fight. What it comes down to is the consumer. Will this affect the consumer? No, probably not anytime soon. In the long run, after this whole thing is banged out, the consumer may or may not have access to new better products which is what we all want. If Apple continues its aggression against the smaller guy, they may lose the publics love. Alternately, what is a patent if not ownership of a product or idea? Whats stopping Google from hooking up with other cell phone providers and setting them up with Android, thus setting up Google Android in every smartphone produced today? Watch this one over the next few months; it could get even more interesting.
