In Technology Wars, Using The Patent As A Sword

[cl-scott]

That's why I made the comment about TV networks (NBC), MS sunk a lot of cash into MSNBC. Also they put billions into AT&T's media ventures. Then there was Skype for $8.5B. They have themselves to blame for their cash position.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft

History is littered with companies that tend to fall apart after the founders are gone. Particularly "creative" companies like Apple. I don't see Apple being some kind of exception to the rule. Nothing they do is new or even particularly innovative. As has been rather aptly described by others, Steve Jobs' real talent was in taking the same raw materials and putting them together in a better way than the competition.

There was nothing new about the iPhone, it just did a lot of things other phones had already been doing, better. The iPad was just an iPhone with a 10" screen and ditching the cellular stuff, but there were loads of Windows based tablets before that. The iTouch is just the iPhone without the cellular stuff. Not one of the products offered anything new or unique, it simply performed the better tasks better than anything else at the time.

Now Steve Jobs is gone, and people with that kind of talent are a rare breed. There are then several other factors to add to that. The larger screen on the iPhone 5 is the single biggest change to the iPhone since the first one came out. iOS is largely unchanged since the beginning, and Apple lives in its own narcissistic little universe. Meanwhile the competition hasn't been sitting still, they've been taking notes and stepping up their game. Consumers are fickle, and if Apple keeps standing still, while the competition goes racing past...

Which is why I say the increased legal aggressiveness, more than anything, shows that Apple is basically tapped out. If they were the creative and innovative company they try and paint themselves, they'd be perpetually 3-5 years ahead of the competition. It wouldn't matter how much the competition copied them, because they'd always be trying to reverse engineer what Apple has already done. By the time a company like Samsung could manage to get their supply chain set up to make an exact clone of the iPhone, and get it onto the market, Apple would probably be about ready to release the next generation of its device. So then by the time Samsung could copy THAT, Apple would again be moving on. The fact that they are trying to club the likes of Samsung over the head with these ridiculous patent suits just says they have nothing in the pipeline, they know it, so they're trying to hobble the competition as much as possible, any way they can, to buy time.

 

[PowerYoga]

Apple's innovative days are behind them. They have some nice products, I'll give them that, but their ethical practices are questionable at best. Now they're just trying to prevent others from foraging ahead with their bogus patents and litigation, hence why I call them the biggest patent troll.

 

[Mopetar]

Oh good, I see Mopey has already entered the ring.

How nice, a term of endearment. Should I start calling you Pandey?

I guess I better keep my personal feelings out of this one and keep it to the facts - no hypothetical scenarios!

Feel free to construct any hypothetical scenario you wish, but it generally helps if they're grounded on facts. Also, there's nothing wrong with expressing your own feelings or opinions, just don't treat them as facts.

Also, for what it's worth, I too believe that the patent system is currently flawed and in need of change. I won't bother going into that as it's not really the topic of the thread and serves no real purpose as any changes we might propose or agree upon have nothing to do with existing cases or the law as it exists at present.

 

[Mopetar]

If they were the creative and innovative company they try and paint themselves, they'd be perpetually 3-5 years ahead of the competition. It wouldn't matter how much the competition copied them, because they'd always be trying to reverse engineer what Apple has already done. By the time a company like Samsung could manage to get their supply chain set up to make an exact clone of the iPhone, and get it onto the market, Apple would probably be about ready to release the next generation of its device.

Considering that it took less than a month for someone to clone to chip necessary to produce cables and adapters for Apple's new dock connector, I doubt that your reasoning is valid.

Also, please describe what possible innovations Apple could make that couldn't be copied by someone within the span of a few months. Every time I hear someone say that Apple should just continue to out-innovate everyone else, they can't list anything that would be feasible or even remotely possible for Apple to do.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Apple's not going anywhere and they CAN live off of the products now and in the pipe for years to come -- they've been doing so for several years already.

Eventually, however, the DOJ will have no choice but to reign them in a put a hault to the walled garden that forces people to pay Apple 30% for anything they want on an iProduct. Microsoft is looking to play this game and were it not for Apple getting there first and getting away with it till now there's no way Microsoft would be allowed to do what Apples been doing.

The upside to M$ jumping on the "walled garden skimming 30% off the top" thing is that this should get the DOJ to finally do something. If they don't there isn't an industry in the world that won't be looking at working that into there business model.

Apple's insanely aggressive legal wars will eventually turn off all but the most die hard of Apple fans and that will lead to lower market share. But, this won't happen overnight and Apple can live high on the hog for years to come...


Brian