January 23, 2009 8:42 AM PST
Palm, Apple posture over iPhone IP
Apple made it clear on its earnings call it won't tolerate any pilfering of its iPhone intellectual property. It was less direct, however, on who that is directed at.
But Palm, with its recently introduced Palm Pre, apparently is willing to play the game of corporate posturing, as well.
A Palm representative, according to an interview with AllThingsD, noted the company is comfortable with its innovation and has no problem defending its developments.
Said the Palm rep:
If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.
Anyone want to keep watch on court filings at the Santa Clara County courthouse?
Dawn Kawamoto covers enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News. E-mail Dawn. 
I doubt anything will come of it... yet. Apple would need to do a tear down of a Pre and see how Palm is doing its touch stuff and whatever else they reckon. So they will have to wait until market, or they find a way to steal one. Regardless, they wouldn't want to be taking action unless they really know its a breach. There is more than one way to touch a screen.
Mind you, once Palm is fully stretched, rolling out, pushing the cash reserves on that, well that is the time to attack.
I'd call Apple lame to attack, better to out innovate Palm, if they can keep up the pump
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/iphone2.htm
That is what is copyrighted by apple. Since palm does not have any patents on new touchscreen tech then I can be fairly certain that this is where they are infringing.
Where it gets interesting is that Palm's choice of gestures to navigate Pre's interface. Remember, Apple patented the interface of the iPhone including certain gestures (as described and illustrated in their patent applications) as well as copyrighting the term "Multi-touch". Apple clearly discloses in their patents the pinch, double-tap zoom, swipe, and others directly as the center of many iphone related patents.
It's not only the technological side of things but the way the data is interfaced that Apple has patented and what has made the iPhone so difficult to copy. No other phone company has even come close in emulating these features because Apple is known to protect its territory.
Palm had better have done its homework on this one -- it may very well be its last product to market...
Do you remember Jobs blabbing about Visual Voice Mail ? Well guess what ? Verizon has Visual Voice Mail...and it was developed by Alcatel-Lucent , NOT Apple.
The iPhone UI looks dated and laughable compared to the ease with which the Pre multi-tasks. The iPhone now actually looks like a "Dumb-Phone"
BONO is more recognizable around the world than Steve Jobs and he is one of the biggest backers through Elevation Partners. BONO-phone wins.
Visual voice mail was not patented by Apple and they never said so too !
they were the ones who first implemented it, so they took credit for it !
if the Iphone Ui is so dated why is everyone trying to Copy it
BTW the Pre isn't even out yet !
The palm UI borrows heavily from Apple,
the only thing they did themselves is the cards interface/notifications
Probably should be credited to Rubenstein and other ex-Apple employees
who r presently working at Palm {it's so Apple like}
I'm sure Apple will refresh the IPhone soon with Multi-tasking etc
and the Palm phones will start to look lame again
One such implementation in Cypress demonstration is tracking different routes in-between locations within a GPS application. With one finger on the origin, and the thumb on the destination, a third finger can be used to touch different roads and highways to see real-time estimates of travel time. It will also be able to recognize the usual pinch-and-spread, rotate and zooming gestures, as seen on current devices.
http://precommunity.com/?p=350
I know how Apple likes to make up superlatives , so I made up the "Super-Duper" part ;)
Also , the Pre has the fastest , most advanced CPU ever put into a phone , wireless charging , BT 2.1 , replaceable battery , much better feel in the hand as well as being fully capable of being used one-handed (ambidextrously)And if you read the comments on YouTube regarding the Pre , even iPhone users are saying the Pre is better.
but till it comes out, no one can really tell whether it's better or not !
as of now the IPhone is still the best phone around
the App store with 15,000 apps
and the software thats years ahead of the competition
cannot be beaten by other phones so called superior features
and Replaceable battery is a joke, the G1 has the same problem
the replaceable battery actually = lesser battery life
why? because it takes up more space for same capacity !
the G1's battery life is supposedly 1/3rd that of the IPhone according to Engadget !
and in all my years of cell phone usage
I've not seen a single person who actually carries a spare battery !
There is NO argument between Apple and Palm.
Apple is NOT suing Palm - unless Palm steals Apple's IP, which Palm has not, therefore Apple is NOT suing Palm.
Apple is NOT scared to death about iPod competitors. Bring them on - so long as they don't steal Apple's IP.
In the several years of iPod competitors, NONE has been an iPod killer.
Similarly, in the years to come, iPhone competitors will come and go. And the iPhone will be the one remaining standing.
There is a lot of room for smartphone competitors. The cell phone industry sells 1 billion phones a year and growing. Thus, for Apple to sell 17 million iPhones in 2 years is a drop in the bucket. There obviously is an enormous amount of room for everyone.
The problem for Palm is that they are trying to play catch up to Apple, Nokia, Microsoft, and Android. Being fifth in line makes it difficult to compete. Thus Palm may still be dying.
BONO-Phone sends Apple scrambling.
- by vmlenigma January 26, 2009 10:29 PM PST
- Palm lost it when it put Windblows Mobile on their devices and after that it was DOWN BABY DOWN
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