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In response to: > But Apple gets into trouble when they start thinking, "People want iPhones and these jerks are copying our iPhone" and >The reaction was th
by timae 16y ago
In response to:
> But Apple gets into trouble when they start thinking, "People want iPhones and these jerks are copying our iPhone"
and
>The reaction was the same, "How dare Microsoft try to give people Apple-like stuff!"
I think Apple's position on this has been misinterpreted over the years. They don't have any problem with copying good ideas from others and don't have the "how dare they" attitude towards Microsoft (or Google) that people seem to think. What I believe annoyed them over the years was that Microsoft took the basic premise of their stuff, made it worse (i.e. produced a "third-rate" product as Jobs has called it), and was winning with this strategy (because, they felt, that "enterprise" was making the purchasing decisions and that they were suffering from the layer between them and the consumers).
On Google, they're competition, so they're competing with them. The Eric Schmidt angle might make it a bit different, but largely I get the sense that Apple respects what Google does, believes they make great products, and is focused on beating them in the market where they both compete.
- cheald 16y agoI think you're wrong. > "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." -- Steve Jobs, regarding the recent Apple vs HTC lawsuit. That's about as cut-and-dried "how dare they" as it comes, particular when examined in the context of the lawsuit.
- timae 16y agoSeriously? This is a quote on protecting a patent. In other words, they have a piece of paper that legally prevents a competitor from copying a specific innovation. That's different from whining "how dare you" when you copy an idea in a perfectly legal way. For some context, watch this video, specifically 0:35-0:46 and 2:50-3:43. It's a younger and more "pissed off" Steve Jobs than we know today, however his feelings are clear: He's not against copying ideas, adding value to them, and producing a wonderful product. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK7TQVFSA1Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK7TQVFSA1Y
- cheald 16y agoPatents on "move your finger on this graphic to perform an action", widget animations, and OO event handlers? You're really going to defend those claims as legitimate innovations that Apple is justly upset over having had emulated? I mean, I really don't want this to devolve into a flamewar on software patents, but just because it's a patent claim doesn't make it any less of a "how dare they" reaction. I specified "In the context of the lawsuit" quite particularly. I know that it's about patent claims, but it's about paper-thin patent claims which are transparently "how dare you" saber-rattling, not a legitimate defense of significant trade secrets. The video you linked only makes the dichotomy more stark. Apple's attitude, based on historical observation, has been "Copying ideas and adding value is great...when we do it. If you try it from us, get ready for Lawyerfest 2010."
- timae 16y agoI'm not making any claims on whether or not they should be able to patent these things. That's not the point. At all. Before arguing the validity of patents, the point you were trying to make is that Apple has a "how dare they" attitude towards Microsoft and Google as they enter into markets which Apple first resides. I'm saying it's not that. They expect others to come into the PC market, they expect others to come into the touchscreen smartphone market. When they get there, they compete with them. Their tiff with Microsoft in the 90's, in my opinion, was not that they made an OS with a GUI, rather that they made an inferior OS with a GUI which lacked originality and innovation and ended up with 95% market share.