As we mentioned before, if the iPhone is to really run OS X with any semblance to the fully fledged Mac OS X operating system, there’s bound to be a good amount of back-office licensing hoopla to deal with. But operating system licensing issues are just the beginning. Apple will need to deal with the question of what to do with their operating system (whatever it may be) as well their hardware. Will they keep it locked down like the iPod, or will they sell their technology to others? To license, or not to license, that is the question. And recent reports indicate that it’s all happening now.
John Fortt at The Utility Belt writes that Apple and Steve Jobs really should license out the iPhone platform. He thinks that in a mobile tech world where everyone will be copying and competing with the iPhone, Apple needs to make sure that they can define the future of mobile technology. He argues that the closed platform strategy that Apple used with the iPod and its clickwheel will not work with the iPhone, mainly because it’s “entering a high-end handset market against strong, global competitors that are determined to make Internet-connected phones.” But if Apple is planning on revolutionizing the mobile phone market like it did the audio player market, they would want to keep their wares on lock-down. This would make sure that everyone will try to copy the iPhone, and never be a real competitor (as long as Apple can stay ahead of the curve in terms of features and innovation). So Apple would not want to license out their tech to other competitors.
But there’s all this buzz created by CrunchGear’s Matt Hickey’s scoop from an Apple insider. Apparently, Matt got what seems to be an insight into what Apple is doing with about licensing its OS and multi-touch technologies. The tipster alludes to a licensing meeting that he/she was late for, but when asked if it was regarding licensing for iPhone accessories, the insider replied, “Naw, we don’t do hardware anymore. It’s a meeting about multitouch and the OS and stuff.†But that doesn’t mean that Apple is even thinking about selling their tech to other companies.
Another take on this scoop could be that it is actually confirmation of what operating system we will actually see on the iPhone. There is much speculation as to whether or not the OS X that Stevie said would run the iPhone will actually be descended from Mac OS X or just something that looks like OS X. As was mentioned previously, Apple would need to re-work its licensing agreement on Darwin in order to use multi-touch and run on an ARM processor. So the licensing meeting regarding the iPhone’s OS and its multi-touch technology could very well just be proof that Apple decided to modify the Darwin platform to work with multi-touch and ARM processors, and now they are dealing with the licensing hoopla as a result.
Apple shouldn’t sell their iPhone technology to others. This strategy helped the iPod not only dominate its market, but it actually changed the entire industry. How many copy-cat audio players do we see now? And the iPod is still the biggest player, now in its second half-decade of life. We already see imitation phones and competitors coming out of their corners and into the ring, but that just gives more reason why Steve should keep the iPhone and its patented technology all to himself.