If you have a smartphone, you've probably used the slide-to-unlock feature to make a call or check your mail. This week, Apple (AAPL 0.00%) won the patent for that feature.
Slide-to-unlock is an elegant, useful feature, and it's been copied by many other companies. The Android software by Google (GOOG 0.00%) uses it, as does the new Windows 8 lock screen from Microsoft (MSFT 0.00%). (Microsoft owns and publishes Top Stocks, an MSN Money site.)
So what will happen now that Apple owns the feature? Well, it's pretty clear that any devices using it could be sued for patent infringement. Time Magazine thinks we'll see a substantial drop in the number of devices offering it from now on.
No issue at all, how about three taps. I hate apple and the stupid patent games they play, sad thing is I am buying my wife an ipad today, she really wants one
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As much as I dislike Apple's suit happy attitude, it is hard to blame them. They spend billions making fantastic user friendly devices only to have other companies blow in and copy every minute detail. It has been a copy game since day one, now the other companies will actually have to innovate.
HTC and other android phones have come under fire, especially with Germany trying to stop sales. There are supposed to be more claimants than just Apple ....
Typically, the only time a product will be "banned" is for gross infringement that would cause a consumer to mistakenly purchase one product over another. This is doubly true in the EU, where patent law is not quite as draconian as it is in the US. Patents, particularly software patents, just provide a legal ground work for big companies (it's very different when big companies sue small companies) to essentially sue other ones for infringements against "likeness". Or at least that's what it almost always comes down to at the end of the day.
It is very difficult to make the case the Apple intentionally copies features that would result in a consumer being "tricked" into accidentally buying an Apple product when they intended to buy something else.
The only company out there right now who is brutally guilty of patent infringement is Samsung. Samsung is the one really fueling that patent war, and everyone is worried that all the other players will become Samsung. They are copying Apple products down to specific dimensions, and even resizing their ads so that their products are the same size as Apple's. Apple started showing their phones like this and then Samsung basically said, "In all our marketing materials, we now show our phones with the same colors and same dimensions just like this."
If HTC and Samsung decided to say, "**** Apple. We aren't going to use any of the colors Apple uses in our palette," it would all go away. If they used a different aspect ratio it would all go away. If they didn't show their phones in every marketing shot with 4 dock icons at the bottom, it would all go away.
Look at Nokia. They don't give two shits about Apple. All their phone look unique. They come in colors and the new Windows Phone 7 UI isn't a direct copy of the iOS. They don't copy the slab design. Everyone laughs at Nokia, but they aren't spending retarded amounts of money on lawsuits compared to everyone else. Elop gets a lot of flak, but at least he has some dignity.
Last edited by ImaNihilist; 01-13-2012 at 02:45 PM.
Look at Nokia. They don't give two shits about Apple. All their phone look unique. They come in colors and the new Windows Phone 7 UI isn't a direct copy of the iOS. They don't copy the slab design. Everyone laughs at Nokia, but they aren't spending retarded amounts of money on lawsuits compared to everyone else. Elop gets a lot of flak, but at least he has some dignity.
True, but isnt nokia miles behind everyone else? Only recently have the entered the smartphone competition ..
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True, but isnt nokia miles behind everyone else? Only recently have the entered the smartphone competition ..
Nokia has had smartphones since well before the iPhone existed. Nokia has lost a **** ton of market share in the US, but they still dominate in South America, India, Africa and South East Asia. Nokia is still responsible for something like 30% of mobile phones worldwide.
Now with their Windows Phone 7 phones they'll re-enter the US/CA/UK/AUS market and win back some high value customers.
And they'll be able to do all this without having to deal with a constant stream of lawsuits because the only thing they know how to do is copy the iPhone.
IMHO, the nokia lumia 900 (along with the 800 and n9) is hands down the best looking phone on the market right now... over any android device and the iphone 4gs
if i liked WM7 i would pick one up but im too invested into google's ecosystem
No issue at all, how about three taps. I hate apple and the stupid patent games they play, sad thing is I am buying my wife an ipad today, she really wants one
Apple should stick with marketing gadgets to 13 yr olds instead of suing everyone in sight. They started all this how many years ago when people wanted to sell Apple clones? That's when I started using PC's and never looked back. Where did that get them? They have no desktop business. They sell PC's ported to run their OS to people who are willing to pay a premium. That is a niche market at best.
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Originally Posted by Steve R Jones
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