End of Android in the US?

[mike123abc]

DailyTech - Judge's Ruling Upholds Apple Patent, Could Jeopardize Android's Future in the U.S.

But Apple has one strong hope of achieving its ultimate objective -- killing its top competitor and granting itself control over the U.S. smartphone market. That patent is U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949, Apple's infamous "multi-touch patent".

The patent claims invention not of a particular narrow, precisely defined algorithm, but rather on an abstract description of all algorithms relating to the use of multi-touch displays. Basically, the patent covers how when your fingers are moving in semi-linear directions, the idea of removing the wobble in order to get a usable gesture.

Virtually every Android device sold today uses multi-touch. Without a method of allowing for accurate touch these devices would be rendered useless. And that's precisely what Apple is hoping for.

I wonder if they will go after windows phones too? One also assumes it applies to tablets too..

If this patent continues to hold up it would be like TiVo's DVR patent... Pay up or Pay up! If Apple decides to license it. I wonder if Apple refuses to license the patent what would happen? Would they get treated like a monopoly and the feds try to force licensing some way?

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Wells Jobs said, he'd spend every last dollar Apple had to "right the wrong" done to him by Google.

But that said, I don't see it killing Android, just making Apple richer, if the lawsuit stands, and not refusing to license it, but instead making lots of money from it (shareholders do speak, and perhaps louder than Jobs does from the grave). But this too would hurt Google.

And I think Google has other concerns - when it comes to money, in that it may lose a LOT of cash flow if Apple kills off the golden calf of iOS with google services like the rumors suggest. But we'll see.

 

[vodad]

My guess is we will see prior art that knocks this patent down some. In ways the article makes it sound bad, but in others it doesn't, I especially like the line "While Apple's invention came largely second-hand via FingerWorks and the Taiwanese manufacturers, it appeared that Apple had "invented" multi-touch.".

At the rate Google is being sued to try to stop android, they are gonna have to buy a whole law school to have enough lawyers for every case.

 

[berck]

Suing everybody was Apple's downfall back in the early 90's. Looks like history will be repeating itself...

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Suing everybody was Apple's downfall back in the early 90's. Looks like history will be repeating itself...

Not sure it will be its downfall though. Pretty different world today.

 

[mike123abc]

I could see Apple licensing this at an obnoxious rate, especially for tablets. Maybe $50/phone, $100/tablets... Minus of course cross licensed patents they might hold. So, unless you have a lot of patents to cross license your phone/tablet may just be priced out of the market.

 

[navychop]

There is a name, which I do not recall, for patents considered so basic as that they are intrinsic to all devices of the sort. They must be licensed at "reasonable" rates. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in.

 

[mike123abc]

There is a name, which I do not recall, for patents considered so basic as that they are intrinsic to all devices of the sort. They must be licensed at "reasonable" rates. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in.

I believe you are thinking of patents used in standards. Which Motorola ran into when it tried to withhold 3G patents from Apple. It lost since it had agreed to the fair and reasonable licensing when it offered its patent to the 3G standard.

This would be like the TiVo timewarp patent, they do not have to be reasonable about it at all.

It looks like that Apple made a killer deal when it bought the company that held the patents. Prior art to the patents may be hard to find since screens that were multitouch were not around.

 

[rocket69]

This will just drag on and on. phone makers should just make phones that will support android os but put some crappy os like windows or make some real pos and sneek out an app to put android on it.

 

[John Kotches]

I wonder if this will end up similar to the Oracle/Google lawsuit. In that one, they are suing for some of the uses of Java, including the Dalvik JVM. At one point Oracle was claiming $6 billion in damages but the last numbers I saw were south of $100 million.

Interesting times.

 

[vodad]

well considering there have been other multi touch screens before 2005 - DiamondTouch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
read through that wikipedia listing and you will see several, including a device in 1991.

but mulit-touch really is not what is being talked about, it is more tracking of finger movements on the screen and how to interupt them.

 

[Peter Parker]

I underatand that Microsoft makes about $5.00 on every aandroid device sold because of patents. Maybe apple will be enriched in a similar manner.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I underatand that Microsoft makes about $5.00 on every aandroid device sold because of patents. Maybe apple will be enriched in a similar manner.

Microsoft makes more off android than they do windows 7 mobile thanks to this.

 

[Peter Parker]

Microsoft makes more off android than they do windows 7 mobile thanks to this.

Windows Phone 7 (or whatever it is called) is not a bad OS but it has been horribly proted just like the Kin, Zune anda host of other products Microsoft can't seem to figure out how to sell.

 

[Stargazer]

I wonder if this would have much of a positive impact on the Apple stock?

 

[yourbeliefs]

Windows Phone 7 (or whatever it is called) is not a bad OS but it has been horribly proted just like the Kin, Zune anda host of other products Microsoft can't seem to figure out how to sell.

The new Lumia 900 is getting a lot of good reviews. A $100 LTE phone with good specs may be what the OS needs.

Actually what AT&T needs to start doing is getting more damn LTE coverage. Oh yeah... more cities being upgraded, and of course not ours.. AGAIN..

 

[berck]

Not sure it will be its downfall though. Pretty different world today.

Not really. If you look at what Apple did 20 years ago, its all too familiar to what is happening now. They are suing and cutting off openness in their systems. Have you tried replacing a HD in the new iMacs lately? Did you know you have to buy special Apple HDs now? This change happened about two years ago. They are making their products more closed to outside sources than they had been even five years ago.

It will happen, unless Apple opens up a bit more.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Not really. If you look at what Apple did 20 years ago, its all too familiar to what is happening now. They are suing and cutting off openness in their systems. Have you tried replacing a HD in the new iMacs lately? Did you know you have to buy special Apple HDs now? This change happened about two years ago. They are making their products more closed to outside sources than they had been even five years ago.

It will happen, unless Apple opens up a bit more.

Perhaps apple is getting a bit more proprietary with things like hard drives (actually I don't have an iMac, and did not know that), but 20 years ago, Apple was a fringe company; it was a company that made expensive products that only a handful of loyalists used. Today, Apple is the world's largest company (in terms of market capitalization), it has retail stores all over the country and world, it dominates the tablet and portable music market, its Mac's while still a minority, represent as much as 30% of computers sold particularly among the youth; its iPhone is dominating the smartphone market in the US; particularly now that it has spread to multiple carriers. I simply do not see Apple crashing the way it did in the early 90s. It is a different world.

 

[Neutron]

The more mature I get into IT (been doing it for 11 1/2 years now) the more I actually appreciate how Apple operates. They are the arguably the best because they develop both the hardware and software side. Knock on wood I haven't had a single issue with our Mac Minis or Mac OS. Fortunately the problems I see with Windows and the PC hardware on that side help keep me employed.

Android is the same way. We both had Android devices before our iPhones and I saw so many compatibility issues with our phones. The way Android gets updates is a pain too!

 

[mperdue]

The change happened with the 2011 models. The new drives have a different power connector that allows the system to better monitor and control the internal temperature of the iMac. This is a big part of the reason that iMacs have so little fan noise when they run. I don't really see this as a problem since the iMac is clearly not designed to be user serviceable beyond adding memory. If I have a problem with my iMac during the next three years I'll take it to the local Apple store to have it repaired or replaced.

Not really. If you look at what Apple did 20 years ago, its all too familiar to what is happening now. They are suing and cutting off openness in their systems. Have you tried replacing a HD in the new iMacs lately? Did you know you have to buy special Apple HDs now? This change happened about two years ago. They are making their products more closed to outside sources than they had been even five years ago.

It will happen, unless Apple opens up a bit more.