Apple Plays Hardball, Microsoft Benefits?
By Harry McCracken | Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Good post over at CNN Money by Philip Elmer-DeWitt with some backstory about Apple’s lawsuit against HTC over iPhone patents. Elmer-DeWitt quotes Yair Reiner, an analyst who says that the suit is spooking handset manufacturers since it throws the future of Google’s Android OS into doubt. (And Reiner says that manufacturers were already nonplussed over Google’s introduction of its own Android phone, the Nexus One.)
End result, according to Reiner? A window (pun unavoidable) of opportunity for the otherwise way-behind OS known as Windows Phone 7 Series, which manufacturers may turn to instead of Android. (I don’t know if Windows Phone is vulnerable to Apple lawsuits, but on the surface, at least, it owes far less to the iPhone than Android does…)
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March 9th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
I agree with the logic, but pushing handset makers to Win Mobile 7 will only make the iPhone shine more in comparison. While Android is serviceable, but primitive, Win Mobile 7 looks downright retro, Zune-inspired, if you would. Hard to see it getting much traction in non-captive markets.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
This could happen, but ONLY if Apple finds a VERY sympathetic judge willing to grant them an injunction. If HTC is prevented from making or selling Android handsets, every other manufacturer will have to dump Android or become next on Apple’s to-sue list.
I don’t think a judge is going to rule in Apple’s favor to stop imports, and certainly not in a time-frame that will have a bearing on the fortunes of Windows Phone 7.
May 24th, 2010 at 12:37 am
This has nothing to do with Apple. HTC has no inventors, no product designers. They simply copy what is out in the market. Apple is the most innovative hardware maker, they invent and design and engineer something that is years ahead and HTC copies it. That is why Apple had to sue them.
The Microsoft HTC thing is just a software-only microcosm of the Apple HTC case. Again, HTC, no inventors, has to copy.
HTC is an innovation-killer. Removing them from the market would increase competition and result in consumers getting better choices in products. Google and Microsoft would have to make hardware, so we would see a better Google and Microsoft phone to compete aganst iPhone.
A really dark side of Android is that Google copies other software, then HTC or Motorola use Android at their own risk, no warranty, so the handset maker is liable for all of Google’s copying. The result is the PC market.