Archive for category iPhone

I have been thinking through the implications and reasons for the Apple vs HTC patent chaos. Engadget gives a great breakdown of the patents.

Many of the patents are so generic and involve ‘prior art’ that I am surprised Apple has patents for them. Take Patent #6,424,354 from 2002: Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods. Isn’t this the observer pattern from the classic 1994 Design Patterns book ?

Nevertheless, it’s likely that Apple has a least one, maybe more, valid patents. The problem is which ones? Why have Apple even included the ridiculous ones? It can only slow down the resolution process.

PC mag might have the answer.

“Just slowing down the rapid growth of Android would be a win. Just getting manufactures to think twice before rolling out Android phones would be a boon. Even a few months of legal wrangling would help Apple pad its lead.”

This equally applies to Windows Phone Series 7 (and HTC’s other Windows Mobile v6.x devices), Symbian or any other platform.

I tend to believe this is the real reason. If Apple were serious about this they would have concentrated on one or two winnable patents. As it is, there’s chaos and this can only lengthen the time over which OEMs might think twice about Android (and Windows Mobile etc). I think Apple are more interested in disrupting things than stopping competitors’ phone shipments, the latter of which they might have done much sooner has they had a more focussed legal suit.