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Apple suing HTC

Someone on another forum made an interesting point that apple can't go after google for this because technically google isn't selling the android os. They may be making money from it, but only indirectly.

Now, all htc is truly designing is the hardware. If anything sense ui brings android farther from the iphone os than stock android is. Nobody is really making money off of android directly, so technically they're not gaining anything off of infringing on any of the iphone's patents.

Just interesting from a conceptual point of view. I'm sure none of that matters in a legal sense lol.
 
DGalt said:
Someone on another forum made an interesting point that apple can't go after google for this because technically google isn't selling the android os. They may be making money from it, but only indirectly.

Now, all htc is truly designing is the hardware. If anything sense ui brings android farther from the iphone os than stock android is. Nobody is really making money off of android directly, so technically they're not gaining anything off of infringing on any of the iphone's patents.

Just interesting from a conceptual point of view. I'm sure none of that matters in a legal sense lol.
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Technically, Google is making money directly from HTC, Motorola, and from whoever else they license the OS. True, they are not selling it directly to consumers, but they are making money from it.

Plenty of people are making money off of Android directly. Was the Android OS not a selling point to you when you bought your phone? If there is any possibility that someone somewhere would have switched to AT&T to pick up an iphone IF Android had not existed, then there has been a direct gain made by offering Android, and a subsequent loss to Apple.
 
From my understanding Google is not selling the license. As is typical of Google's business model, they are simply concerned with driving traffic through their stuff and selling ads. If that means giving away things like phone OS's, well so be it.

And you would have a tough time proving that people are directly making money off of Android (besides app developers). While Android might be part of the attraction for a particular phone, so might be a number of other things. To say that Android was directly taking money from apple one would have to prove that it is specifically the android OS, and not something else (e.g. a preference of having a hardware keyboard, better processor, preference for a particular carrier or simply a disdain for apple), driving people to buy phone X over the iPhone

Again, just playing devil's advocate here. I think the US's patent laws are kind of ridiculous (we have biotech companies that are actually risking people's lives by hiding behind patents)
 
sooper_droid12 said:
No it's because HTC doesn't innovate. They just steal tech. HTC deserves what they get and I hope Apple bleeds them dry. For how many of the 20 or so infringements, Apple needs to be compensated for the legitimate ones. For the most part, this doesn't affect our DROIDs. It might affect the operation of Android. We may not see P2Z after all. And the CoolIris gallery app (from 2.1) might be pulled. Those are two things I know are in violation of Apple patents. If Google plays it safe and Motorola too, they'll make sure the next update will be in compliance. Nexus One is actually one of the exhibits in the lawsuit. Google phone will likely die as a result of this case.
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I think you're getting ahead of yourself. The case was filed today. These sort of suits don't usually get worked out in the short term. I doubt anything is changing anytime soon.

Multitouch (or P2Z) isn't even one of the patents involved here. Apple's MT patent from a month or two ago is weak and they know it. They won't bother as too many devices are using MT already. That might be the root of Apple's hissy fit, but they aren't officially claiming that.

The gallery is a bit more sticky. The Apple patent I think you're thinking of is for the reordering of rows of icons, right? What it seems to talk about is changing the order when an icon is added or removed (#7,362,331). I don't think the gallery does that. Even the rest of that patent is just about scaling and such. I don't think it applies.

When all is said and done in a few years, Google might end up changing a few minor UI things. By then, new UIs might already be commonplace. HTC didn't create Android so I imagine they won't end up getting screwed here. But who knows? Maybe tomorrow Google will shut down Android and all our phones will self-destruct.

Edit: Also, Google is proactively backing HTC. I bet Apple was hoping they'd play dumb.
 
CriticalCritic said:
Technically, Google is making money directly from HTC, Motorola, and from whoever else they license the OS. True, they are not selling it directly to consumers, but they are making money from it.
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Google released most of the Android code under the Apache License, a free software and open source license. (Source Wikipedia)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)#cite_note-AndroidOverview-10

I believe that this was the appeal of this OS, to the Mobile phone makers, the potential for pure profit on the hardware. Thus the OHA and it's ever growing member list!

CriticalCritic said:
Plenty of people are making money off of Android directly. Was the Android OS not a selling point to you when you bought your phone? If there is any possibility that someone somewhere would have switched to AT&T to pick up an iphone IF Android had not existed, then there has been a direct gain made by offering Android, and a subsequent loss to Apple.
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So True. Every Android based device sold is potential money off of the table, for Apple! This was not an issue with One U.S. carrier and 1-2 phone products that did not make much of a dent in the total market share. But with the current product and vendor announcements for 2010, Android is a potental force to be dealt with!
 
DGalt said:
Someone on another forum made an interesting point that apple can't go after google for this because technically google isn't selling the android os. They may be making money from it, but only indirectly.

Now, all htc is truly designing is the hardware. If anything sense ui brings android farther from the iphone os than stock android is. Nobody is really making money off of android directly, so technically they're not gaining anything off of infringing on any of the iphone's patents.

Just interesting from a conceptual point of view. I'm sure none of that matters in a legal sense lol.
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Hey I'm making a ton of $$$ off Android... :D Well not really just a few Bucks here and there, hey It puts gas in my car and gets me some Starbucks coffee every once in a while.

Well we will see in a few months what will happen with all this patent stuff.

For Android stickers and shirts click here....
inkedcity — Home
( before mighty Apple shuts me down )... Yeah right :D
 
Somebody needs to put jobs in his place and set him straight. Hes got to be one of the biggest cry babies i ever seen. Hes a smart guy and who shoodnt have respect for him? He made a good product and made alot of money... But now he is jus way out of line. Wen the G1 was first released apple didnt care about android it wasnt until android attacked apple wit the droid does campaign wen apple got mad.. Then android became more Popular and better then apple so Jobs got jealous and since he cant beat us... Sue us Im sure that was plan b but he cant try suin people wen his product sales go down. And not to mention he has the nerve to sue HTC even tho HTC is much more Popular and older then the iphone... If u ask me hes bein a b****
 
The thing I find strange is that one of the reasons Apple used to have so many fanboys is that it was the tree hugging alternative to the nasty and aggressive Microsoft._But over the last 10 years or so, Apple has turned into a pretty unpleasant. hyper-aggressive megacorps - way worse than MS In the 90s. Shame the fanboys haven't noticed yet
 
What is the big deal about this? In all likelihood by the time this all gets sorted out we will most likely be using something totally different. This is just a last ditch effort by apple to slow down the droid takeover. I would be surprised to see this actually effect end users. Htc and the other manufacturers will likely have to pay apple some money though. Though I personally feel multitouch is a PITA and a step backwards. I personally love being able to operate the device one handed. Sure multitouch has that wow factor and looks pretty, but overall its just cumbersome. I have both the moment and ipod touch, I would much wrather use the moment for well pretty much everything.
 
As much as this infuriates me since I own a Nexus One (and previously owned a Behold II), I don't think anything will happen in the end. Apple couldn't beat Microsoft, it's doubtful they can overcome Nokia or Palm with their lawsuits against Apple, and in the end, really who cares? Apple is raising a stink for PR. Trying to make themselves look like the victim when they themselves did the same thing to other companies. The entire patent system is flawed and companies like Apple prey on it for their benefit rather than actually doing what the patent system was supposed to do. Everyone is mad about this issue (including me), but really, are they going to come take the phones you bought away from you? Even if in the future there's no support, Apple can't undo what has already been done.
 
Well, I wasn't going to say much about this since we all have our various feelings about Apple, but...

The new Apple advertisement campaign slogan;

"THERE'S A PATENT FOR THAT!"
 
they are scared now, they kept quiet up until the ng Android phones are about to wreck havoc in the smartphone world. Steve knows now he and his "baby" are in real competition and he goes for HTC since Google can take him down, and since he talked Shit to them.



Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 
Gesture with an icon to unlock a phone on a touchscreen...

There is a requirement for patents that they not be obvious.

This is so obvious that it's not even funny. How else would you unlock a touchscreen? Tapping a message in Morse code?

As has been said, issuing that patent is the same as issuing a patent for unlocking a phone by pressing a button. It's the obvious way to do something.

Steve Jobs patented the obvious, and the patent office let him.

I haven't read through the other patents, but this is ridiculous.

Next they'll let him patent using voice equalization when interpreting voice input.

Like there's another way to do it...
 
if android were to not be able to multi task, and only be able to use one app at a time, Apple might sue.

Apple can suck the fattest part of my ass.
 
sooper_droid12 said:
Already happening. Nokia will likely win their lawsuit for what Apple's stolen. There's another major player in the mobile device market: Palm. Apple's in deep with tech they've stolen from Palm.
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Yes and people SO FORGET THIS FACT! The touch technology started with PALM NOT APPLE.
 
frickingphil said:
On the contrary, when I owned an iPhone, it made calling people seem fun again. Using my Droid Eris' phone app is opening up a whole new box of lag and pain. HTC's texting app could use a bit of work and optimization as well, especially with regards to attaching images and such. And the Bluetooth stack is unreliable and glitchy compared to the iPhone's.

However, I love Android and the rest of Sense UI more than enough to overlook that.

On-topic:
Software patents are stupid, and horrible for "innovation." Apple is good at polishing, that's what they do, find or take an idea that has potential and spit-shine the crap out of it till it sells, and it sells millions.

I don't get how Apple can do something as great as WebKit...they took KHTML and polished it, optimized it, and released their developments back into the Open Source development stream, and now every good browser uses WebKit...

and then do a 180
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The_Omega_Man said:
That assumes that Apple has not already licensed this technology from Palm. ;)
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Im willing to bet they didn't. The Palm pilot pda was out years before an iphone was ever thought of and I'm sure they got all their technology patened before it went out. I think Palm is like well, if they don't mess with us, we wont mess with them. However, if Apple gets froggy, Palm can shut them down.
 
THIS IS MADNESS! :D

i hate apple. childish, i know but tbh i dont care...

i reckon steve has got nexus one but cant work out how to use it because its so advanced compared to the iphone... and the s anfter the 3g means iphone 3gsucks!
childish again...

cool beans =]
 
Why os it that if company A makes a product and company B makes a similar product that if a person buys the product that company B makes then company A thinks that they have lost revenue and then come up with multitude ways to get revenue back or get company B shut down ?

This to me to me is flawed logic . It cannot be known a customer would do if company B's product didn't exist . In the case here if HTC didn't exist I would still never buy an iPhone so whether or not HTC exists or not doesnt guarantee that Apple will get my money instead .

This same argument is used by tons of companies and even governments to force changes when they believe revenues are being funneled to away from their coffers and into sombody else's .
 
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