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| How Apple and Microsoft intend to destroy Android |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-07-29 10:48:54 |
| Groklaw nails it: "In other words, [Apple and Microsoft] want to disarm the companies that got there first, built the standards, and created the field, while the come-later types clean up on patents on things like slide to unlock or a tablet shape with rounded corners. Then the money flows to Apple and Microsoft, and away from Android - and isn't that really the point of all this, to destroy Android by hook or by crook? The parties who were in the mobile phone business years before Apple or Microsoft even thought about doing it thus get nothing much for their earlier issued patents that have become standards. Apple and Microsoft can't compete on an even field, because the patent system rewards the first to invent (or now, after the recent patent reform, the first to file). Neither Apple nor Microsoft got there first. Samsung was there, since the '90s." To illustrate: Apple is demanding $24 (!) per Samsung device for design patents, while at the same time, Apple also demands that Samsung does not charge more than $0.0049 per standards essential patent per device. This is absolutely, utterly, and entirely indefensible. And then Apple and its supporters have the nerve to claim Samsung is ripping them off. Yes, this pisses me off, and no, that's not because it's Apple doing it (Microsoft is just as guilty). It's because this is plainly, utterly, clearly, and intrinsically unfair. |
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| Comment by NuxRo |
| By NuxRo on 2012-07-29 11:23:39 |
| And that is why everybody should be boycotting M$ and Apple. No more articles praising Microsoft products, Thom! |
 - Score: 13 |
| RE: Comment by NuxRo |
| By Morgan on 2012-07-29 12:27:23 |
| Well he's a journalist (and yes I really mean that) so he can't play favorites like that when reporting the news. He can, however, express his opinion in editorials, and from the first three lines of this submission, I'd say he's firmly on the side of Samsung and Android in this fight. |
| - Score: 4 |
| RE: Comment by NuxRo |
| By Thom_Holwerda on 2012-07-29 12:32:12 |
|
I can review a product perfectly fine without having company policies affect it (see my Apple and Microsoft reviews). A product is a product, and is created by people who have nothing to do with legal departments and who are proud of their work. The iPad 2, for instance, got a very positive review from me because it simply was (at the time) the best tablet on the market, Apple product or no. Same for the iPhone, iMacs, MacBooks, and so on. |
| - Score: 5 |
| Comment by NuxRo |
| By NuxRo on 2012-07-29 12:43:30 |
|
I do agree it's a tricky issue and maybe it was unfair to ask this of Thom. Sorry, Thom. However, to make a point: the Nazi Panzer tanks were arguably the best of their time. Great technical achievements. I'll go boycotting M$ and Apple on my own. Cheerio! |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Disarm the companies that got there first |
| By Lorin on 2012-07-29 12:54:55 |
| Android Inc was purchased by Google in 2005, so Android existed long before IOS, it just was not yet ready for release. |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE: Disarm the companies that got there first |
| By Beta on 2012-07-29 13:02:41 |
|
> I'm confused by this. Android 1.5 was released in April 2009, while the original iPhone was released in June 2007, almost 2 full years ahead. Sure hardware makers have been making phones for a lot longer than apple, but it was the Android OS that got them traction in the smart phone space. Who got there first? Whole article is about the fundamental hardware that powers these devices (no, not their CPU, that could be anything…), and that tech is mostly from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, HTC. |
| - Score: 8 |
| RE[2]: Comment by NuxRo |
| By dsmogor on 2012-07-29 13:15:17 |
| Thom, btw when can we expect N7 review? |
| - Score: 3 |
| Comment by marcp |
| By marcp on 2012-07-29 13:21:15 |
|
The point is that you cannot avoid this type of situation unless you use open platforms and open standards. Microsoft and Apple got to have a company they will fight with [Google]. With open source they won't, because there is a collective of individuals, no patents and huge variety of implementations. Google is NOT open. Google profits from your data, Android is NOT open. Android *tends* to be sort-of open sometimes. Generally it is quite enclosed ecosystem which is slightly modified by various hardware vendors. What people need is a truly open software mobile platform, like specially crafted gnu/linux distro for cell/smart phones and mobile hardware. This would give everyone total control over their experience. Otherwise it's just another form of digital slavery [dependency] |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Comment by marcp |
| By Sodki on 2012-07-29 13:53:56 |
|
> Google is NOT open. Google profits from your data... You'd be surprised how much of this is not true. > ... Android is NOT open. Android *tends* to be sort-of open sometimes. Android code is open, there is no question about it because it has been released. Android development, on the other hand, seems not to be that open, unfortunately. > Generally it is quite enclosed ecosystem which is slightly modified by various hardware vendors. Buy a Nexus phone. Problem solved. > What people need is a truly open software mobile platform, like specially crafted gnu/linux distro for cell/smart phones and mobile hardware. This would give everyone total control over their experience. Otherwise it's just another form of digital slavery [dependency] I have a Nokia N900 with Maemo, which is what you describe: an open mobile platform where you have total control. A Google Nexus phone with a ROM image directly from Google, without hardware vendor modification is exactly the same. Both are expensive phones, for both of them you can do whatever you want. Edited 2012-07-29 13:54 UTC |
| - Score: 8 |
| RE[3]: Comment by NuxRo |
| By thavith_osn on 2012-07-29 14:53:28 |
|
Did you want me to review it? ;-) I'll just say what I said earlier, I'm a Mac fanboy, have been since 1980 when I used my first Apple ][ (48k beast) and then even more so with the //c and first Macs... I have not liked Android in it's earlier incarnations. It felt unfinished, slow, and just unwieldy. I didn't like it because it wasn't iOS, I didn't like it because for me, it was lacking so much. Anyone using 2.n needs to check out 4.1.n So, with all that base work in place, let me say... Android 4.1.1 on the Nexus 7 is brilliant. I didn't expect to like it and came out loving it. It's passed iOS 6 (which I have as an Apple Dev) in many areas. I would recommend a Nexus 7 as a tablet without hesitation (if you don't need 3G). Even if it was priced $100 more it would be a bargain. Google as done a lot of work to get it where it is now. There are a few things I don't like, but that's true of iOS too... Back to the article. I wish wish wish Apple (I don't have much hope for M$) would stop this patent trolling thing and just go back to what they do. I might write a letter to tcook@apple.com and politely ask what is going on (without expecting an answer), maybe all of us here who believe Apple is heading down a path we don't like should - maybe if enough people wrote he might do something (we can but dream can't we). |
| - Score: 7 |
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