Apple Will Not Be Offering Licensing Terms To Its Patents; There's Precedent For This

There are a good many folks who believe that at the end of the day, the patent lawyers currently involved in the Android suits will walk away fatter and richer.  Well, okay, that part is true.  What isn't necessarily true is that Apple will offer cross-licensing terms or simply collect patent royalties from HTC, Samsung and other Android devices makers.  And many "experts" and analysts believe that is how all this is going to end.  

Think back to the iPods.  The scroll wheel.  Now, I ask you this:  which other companies out there have a MP3 player with a scroll/click wheel?  It's been 11 years, folks.  From Sony?  Samsung?  Creative?  

That's right.  None.  And you know why?  Because Apple made it so.  It was a patented feature that it was not willing to share with anyone else on the planet (or on any other planet as far as we know).  

Now consider the features that Apple is suing Android device makers for.  Patents range in how devices work to how it looks and how the UI responds to users.  Among those are the multi-touch gestures and the scrolling actions that make some of the iPhone experiences unique.  

And that was before Apple was granted this key multitouch patent that has the potential to be an even greater implication and a new weapon for Apple to bring to the mobile war.  Consider the FAQ from CNet about the new multitouch patent that was granted to Apple.  If you're a competitor, this is a scary thing.  It looks pretty air tight.  And like myself, the FAQ believes Apple will not be trying to collect multi-touch royalties from competitors.

Essentially, Apple is going to make its competitors work around its patents.  To put it more politically correct, they're going to have to innovate.  In other terms, Apple is trying to make sure its mobile devices offer an unique mobile experience.  

Apple wants user to be able to tell the difference between its iOS devices and those of its competitors.

Apple Is Going After Android; Google Is Just A Casualty

I think this Reuters post has it wrong.  It suggests that Apple is after Samsung, HTC, and Motorola (if I miss anyone else, my apologies) because Apple is fight a proxy war against Google via the patent suits.  They're read wrong.

Think before Android.  Things were good between Apple and Google.  Eric Schmidt was sitting on Apple's board of directors.  Albeit a spy of sort but still he was there a long while.

It was not until Google released Android, changed how the original Android phone looked and and feel and the whole UI did Apple felt betrayed.  

I know that there are a lot of "he said, she said" but the point is that Apple and Google were fine before the first Android release in late 2007, the G1 by T-Mobile.  

If tomorrow, Google suddenly said they were relinquishing control of Android to a true open source community and publicly declared that it will not contribute any more resource to its development, it may just be enough, over time, for Apple and Google to become close again.

Apple was not interested in cloud computing much as it is now before the two tech giants parted ways.  I doubt iCloud would be where it is today.  The acceleration in which Apple worked on its cloud initiatives was largely brought on by Google's competition in the mobile hardware and software market.

So, Reuters is wrong.  Apple is after Android.  And it is seems like Apple is going after Google, that's just a coincidence.  Consider this.  If Apple wants to go after Google, I think it would be working on a search engine right about now.

AT&T's Own Leaked Documents Indicate There Is No Need For It To Buy T-Mobile To Complete LTE Network

Uh-Oh...this might not be a good thing for AT&T.  According to a leaked document posted by its a law firm representing AT&T in the merger, AT&T does not have to buy T-Mobile at all for it to build out its LTE network to adequately over 97% off the US market.

DSL Reports indicates that all AT&T has to spend is $3.8 billion to make that happen.  

One has to wonder just what is AT&T trying to pull here.  The conclusion is just this:  T-Mobile represents a GSM threat and it's trying to pay for its elimination.

No more, no less.  We'll get into it as we have time to examine what's going on.  

Source: DSL Reports.

Hulu - Worth The Price? Yes And Much Much More

Yahoo is considered to be one of the top bidders for Hulu and it makes sense for the Web portal to try become something beyond just providing Web contents.  After all, things haven't turned out the way they expected one of the survivors of the first wave of Internet companies from the late 90s and the first tech bubble.

Hulu is fast becoming one of the top destination for watching television shows and movies.  And note that I used the term "television shows".  That remains to be so today but will change.  Let me introduce the term "episodic shows".  The reason for the change is also the reason why Hulu is worth many times more than what's being bid on.  

And it'll be worth so much more than whatever the winner pays for. 

Sprint Says No To WiMax Playbook

I don't know what this means for RIM's Playbook plans for future grades and such but in the short-term, this piece of news out of WSJ ain't good.

Sprint has decided against going ahead with a WiMax version of the Playbook. I would have thought that since the Playbook is the only tablet for use by the US government, RIM's tablet would soon have a lot of wind on its back.

And we know nothing so far about what plans RIM has for its future tablet plans. My recommendation is that it focuses the the superphones first. Those are already pretty late as it is.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Preparing for An Apple Event

There are some things the general public look for to.  Fall premiers of new seasons and new TV shows.  The first kick off of the NFL season.  I'm not talking about preseason but the first week when the crowd is just nuts about the whole experience.  Then there's the Apple events for us geeks.  We get a few of these a year.

You've got WWDC in June and a September iPod event.  And along the way, we might see the iPad launch in the spring.  In the past, there was more.  Macworld keynote.   Until this year, we had the iOS introduction in April.  So, you can't blame us for getting excited about these Apple events.

Want an Ultrabook? Well, You Can Thank Apple For That

I have a 11" MacBook Air. And I love it. More than even the iPad...almost. And it looks like with the death of the netbook, Intel is looking to replace them with te ultrabook.

Ultrabooks are a new class of light weight notebooks inspired by Apple's MacBook Air and the iPad. Don't believe me? Them believe Intel's Greg Welch, director of Intel's Ultrabook division. And Intel is putting $300 million into this new effort to keep the PC alive longer.

Furthermore, it was Apple's telling Intel that it was dissatisfied with Intel's mobile effort that served as a wake-up call. Because of Apple's unhappiness with the power hungry chips, Intel worked to lower the typical 35-40W power consumption down to about 15W.

So yeah, we can thank Apple for this. Looking forward to see Windows ultrabooks to complete with the MacBook Airs next year.

More at WSJ.

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