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Apple Has Licensed iOS Design Patents to Microsoft, Agreement Bans "Cloning"
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They aren't mutually exclusive. It's possible for both the history to exist AND the desire to destroy Android too.
Wrong. Court documents showed that apple offered to license the patents to samsung.
Exactly, Chrome OS will continue to be a niche market.
Very soon there will be tens of millions of PC's running Windows 8. When the owners of those PC's get a new mobile getting one running Windows 8 will be a simple and straight forward choice for a lot of them, especially if they like the interface on their PC.
You're kidding right?
1: Despite Apples current financial situations. They cannot just "Squish" Microsoft. Microsoft revenues are 70+ billion. They employee 90,000 people, and, if their mobile line isn't entirely successfull, they still account for ~90%+ of the world wide desktop market, and almost the entirety of the enteprrise market, that isn't run by *nix.
Apple would not want to "squish" microsoft. Microsoft and Apple have a long history together. While it was not always amicable, Microsoft's $150 million bailout in 1997 has put these companies on friendly terms. Apple knows without Microsoft, they wouldn't exist today.
What i find interesting, Microsoft and Apple came to a patent sharing agreement where obviously both are content.
We know Apple already buys parts and pays Samsung considerable moneys for both the parts and patents they need surrounding these parts.
Why have apple and samsung not attempted to reach some form of patent arrangement? Why not share between them, instead of going thermonuclear?
this whole samsung v Apple thing has been a disaster from day 1.
Of course I'm ignoring it. It's irrelevant because no one uses it.... like less than 1% marketshare. And there is no sign that it may change in the near future.
How does Adobe buying Macromedia get rid of competition for Flash exactly ?
Macromedia was the owner of Flash.
Right, I got confused about... long story. Anyway, they simply got rid of competition from Macromedia, their biggest competitor.
You can cross-license patents for more than historical purposes you know... like maybe there are motivations to continue to do it and reasons why it might help your company? Killing Android marketshare may be one of many reasons.
haven't been able to follow the liveblog all too well but I did see something about Apple hadn't actually offered any design patent licensing
Your post is completely uninformed as you're reading into information that doesn't exist within the article. It doesn't mention if any licensing fees changed hands here. If such a thing went to court, Apple would have run a very high risk on this one. Design patent interpretations are supposed to be fairly strict, and MS is different in enough ways here that Apple would likely not have a case assuming equally competent legal teams. It's likely that this is just to ensure that the matter is off the table entirely. To say that this is in some way infringing on Apple's design really would be to reduce Apple's claims to ownership over a rectangle with black bezel.
Also incoming lawsuit from George Lucas over the cloning reference
.Exactly. MS is going to eat into Android at a rapid pace with Windows 8 over the next two years. I think this is going to happen and I personally hate Windows 8.
There are genuine offers and then there are offers which are designed so the other party can't possibly agree yet shows you extended an olive branch. I'm not sure which was offered to whom here.
The past and present doesn't equal the future. I'm not saying Chrome will dominate the market. At the same time I would never be so bold to say there's no sign it won't increase it's marketshare.
Licensing patents is very un-Apple.
I suppose this is to avoid costly litigation against Microsoft, we know what happened the last time these two met in court.
I suppose this is to avoid costly litigation against Microsoft, we know what happened the last time these two met in court.
The other variable is the phone manufacturers themselves. They will all be able to produce Windows 8 mobiles, safe in the knowledge that they won't get sued by Apple - Microsoft won't allow them to do anything that could prompt it and will have patent licensing in place. They won't have any loyalties to Android, if Windows 8 is the better option for them they'll jump ship.
I like Windows 8 and Microsoft have really sorted their stuff out recently. Hope Apple come up with something special with the next iPhone or I'll be looking to jump back to Microsoft - something I haven't even dreamt of doing since I moved to Apple 6 years ago.
This is getting interesting, MSFT & AAPL vs GOOG & SSNLF.
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Well, Apple could always buy Microsoft, quadruple all of its product prices, make the XBOX 360 use an N64 controller, and start selling Windows 95 as new.
I'd use Windows 95 if it had drivers and app support! I still use 2000 on a daily basis. Call me crazy but I'd rather use legacy windows versions (2000 and lower) than windows XP/V/7/8.. but it's not really possible to in this day and age.
This is fantastic - in some ways it shows Apple and Microsoft are continuing to build on the relationship between them that Steve Jobs started.
I do love iPad and hate Windows, but not Microsoft. I hope they can get it right and make a come back.
I do love iPad and hate Windows, but not Microsoft. I hope they can get it right and make a come back.
This is one of the funniest things I've read on here lately. Apple has no desire to compete with Microsoft's primary line of business, which is enterprise-to-small business software and systems. We've tried getting Apple to help with integrating iOS devices into our enterprise network, but they don't have much of a clue, nor do they seem to care.
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At completely ridiculous rates. They wanted several dollars per device on just one patent. Most patents are worth no more than a few cents. Even good patents for real things and not vague patents.
^^^This
Even with the horrible Vanity Fair piece on Ballmer floating around, it's clear they're going through something at MSFT and have turned some kind of corner. Right now it looks good and I am impressed that they've taken the time to craft a unique mobile operating system as part of their Windows portfolio.
Google could have licensed. Samsung could have licensed. I've said it before, it's clear what happened from the Samsung docs: They (and Google) got blindsided by iPhone/iOS in 2007, panicked, and copied Apple's designs/UI in order to minimize Apple's first-mover advantage in the now-$220 billion smartphone market. If they hadn't, they'd have half the market share they've got now.
Kudos to MSFT, they are playing the long game again.
Outside of FRAND, I am not aware of any laws that dictate the pricing of licensing patents.