Is the Palm Pre too iPhone-esque for its own good?
Most iPhone wannabes have tried to avoid appearing too similar to Apple's uber phone. The better to avoid being sued over Apple's patents on things like its multi-touch interface and such.
AP
Could the Palm Pre be the target of an Apple patent-infringement lawsuit?
But the Palm waded directly into that pool with its newest device, the soon to be released Palm Pre and there are rumblings that Apple could respond with some legal fire.
During Apple's earnings call yesterday, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook, who is running Apple day to day, was asked if an earlier comment in the call about going after companies that rip off its intellectual property was directed at Palm.
He studiously declined to comment on any one company and said he welcomed the competition, which he said makes everyone better.
"However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off, and we'll use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal. I don't know that I can be clearer than that," he said.
Now, Apple has not said it is going after Palm but the Pre is the phone that comes closest to copying the iPhone's interface. Other devices have used other tricks and settled for less effective methods to achieve some of the on-screen manipulation that the iPhone offers. The pinching maneuver to resize a page or picture, for example, is something Android and BlackBerry both avoided with their latest touch-screen devices, but the Pre will apparently offer when it launches.
Palm is not in the best position to fight a costly legal battle and perhaps more troublesome would be any type of injunction that would hold up the timely release of the Pre. Again, this is all speculation at this point, but it could be an interesting first half of the year as we await the launch of the Pre and see what Apple does.
01-22-2009, 11:36 PM
Is the Palm Pre too iPhone-esque for its own good?
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