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If you don't believe in isolated software patents, then a world where you have to actually make a hardware system to patent your invention as hardware with supp
by dcow 3y ago
If you don't believe in isolated software patents, then a world where you have to actually make a hardware system to patent your invention as hardware with supporting software doesn't seem so bad. At this point the iPhone patent would be just about to expire and we'd all be able to legally clone, sell, remix, improve, etc. the system Apple spent the last 14 years profiting off of, royalty free, nonetheless.
I'm not so sure the world today where we don't own our iPhones because Apple retains an exclusive license to the software deployed on the hardware is really a good thing for the world. And I'm 100% sure society would have figured out how to make the iPhone in a world where all software was public domain, regardless.
As an example, we see more and more open source SASS companies as time progresses. This directly validates the model that you can profit off of a well run service provider business on top of software which you allow any user to copy for free.
- scarface_74 3y agoApple’s patents aren’t the issue. The world can’t just figure out how to manufacturer hardware scale. The market is littered with failed hardware startups and even companies like Sony and Microsoft can’t figure out how to manufacturer the number of consoles in three years to match the number of phones Apple sells in less than a quarter. Literally dozens of Android manufacturers can’t figure out how to compete with Apple at scale. Android is already open source
- dcow 3y agoIf you could run iOS on other hardware, you'd get an iPhone for $300. That would be competitive.
- scarface_74 3y agoWhy do you think running iOS on cheap commodity hardware would be any better than Android? Apple designs it’s hardware and software in concert.
- dcow 3y agoI have no idea, but at least we'd be able to try it out and see. Plus the iMessage blue bubble thing would be dead and that's a big part of Apple's social platform lock in today.