There's an interesting article today in InfoWorld that talks about the game of chicken that Apple and Palm are currently playing with each other regarding iTunes Syncronization.
This is not a battle to be taken lightly. Apple is now a large enough player to deal with the same issues that IBM did in the 70s/80s and Microsoft did in the 90's: When you become such a dominent player in an industry, you will ultimately be asked to play nice with others or you will be forced to. (Can you say "Consent Decree"? )
Apple's next move is critical. If it allows Palm to 'get away' with this, it is inviting a host of other companies to follow suit. (or maybe file suit?) If it prevents Palm now, it will likely get away with it as everyone fully expects Apple to protect it's IP. If not, it only prolongs the moment when an inevitable bug (whether intentional or not) gets introduced somewhere down the line that breaks Pre's ability to sync. The conspiracy theorists will be all over this in a minute and Apple will be forever forced to do damage control.
I was at IBM in the days when all APIs were required to be either published publically or found in an OEM document available by request. Apple's system works as well as it does because they keep their APIs so close to the vest. It will be interesting to watch the cultural affect this would have if Apple is forced to open up this closed system.
...And as of the latest revision of iTunes... (8.2.1) PRE sync with iTunes is broken.. it will be interesting to see if Palm intends to play catchup each time, or if they always planned to have it work -once- to lure customers and get marketing attention...
Posted by: JimmyG | 07/22/2009 at 10:12 AM
Interesting. Apple just updated its iTunes license agreement. As they put it, one of the changes -
"We have clarified that proprietary information and materials owned by Apple and is licensors includes the user interface, and the scripts and software to implement the service"
I wonder how much they might want to charge Palm to be a "licensor" ?
JimmyG
Posted by: JimmyG | 06/17/2009 at 02:40 PM