Apple COO Growls at Knock-Offs
By Simon Sage on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 9:44 AM PST In Apple, Financial/Corporate News, Legal
The Tim Cook IP Infringement Death-Glare
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) reported some exemplary growth in their Q1 earnings report the other night ($10.2 billion in revenue, far beyond investor expectations in light of the recession), but the most interesting bit came in the Q&A period when someone asked about competition from BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), Android and now Palm (NSDQ: PALM). Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook answered:
We approach this business as a software platform business. We are watching the landscape. We like competition as long as they don’t rip off our IP. And if they do, we will go after anyone who does. … I don’t want to talk about any specific company. We are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off.
Something tells me he’s not talking about those Chinese iPhone Nano clones. Is Apple getting touchy about the Palm Pre packing multi-touch?
[via TechCrunch]
Apple didn’t invent multi-touch, they were just the first to put it in a smartphone.
Palm didn’t invent the ringer mute switch, they were just the first to put it in a smartphone.
The ringer mute switch on the iPhone, down to its orange coloring and the “buzz” when it’s put in vibrate mode, is a blatant and obvious ripoff of the Treo’s switch, which invented this feature years and years ago.
If Apple sues Palm, Palm should respond by filing an injunction to stop iPhone sales over the switch and demand damages for all 20 million iPhones sold worldwide. Perhaps that would give Apple pause before it decides to bully a competitor rather than innovate.