Apple Fired Warning Shots At Handset Makers

Apple reportedly fired warning shots at handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing iPhone related intellectual property infringed.

Citing industry checks Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner writes that:

"Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple's way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors.


"Our checks also suggest that these warning shots are meaningfully disrupting the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers. Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged."

Reiner says these warnings began over a year ago in January 2009 when Apple COO Tim Cook warned that "we will not stand for having our IP ripped off and we'll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal. I don't know that I can be more clear than that."

After that warning the major handset manufacturers stayed clear of multi-touch. The Palm Pre was an exception but it doesn't currently represent a strategic threat to Apple. However in late 2009 the Motorola Droid and the HTC Eris arrived.

"Top-tier handset makers continued to avoid implementing multi-touch, but Apple could safely assume that they were hanging back to gauge Apple's response to Motorola and HTC. If there wasn't one, the OEMs would likely read the silence as a green light, especially after Google also moved to enable multi-touch on its Nexus One phone.


It was likely in order to counter that perception that Apple began reaching out to handset OEMs in January and explaining in no uncertain terms that it was now ready to do battle–and not just on multi-touch. It was ready to press its case along a number of axes that had made the iPhone experience unique, from the interpretation of touch gestures, to object-oriented OS design, to the nuts and bolts of how hardware elements were built and configured."

Apple likely picked HTC to file suit against as a perfect proxy for Apple's real target, Google and Android. Reiner believes that even before the lawsuit, handset makers were having second thoughts about Android, especially after the launch of the Nexus One. Now their faith in Android as a counter to the iPhone has been shaken, says Reiner.

Interestingly this all may work out in favour of Microsoft who is getting ready to launch their much improved mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series.

"Our checks," writes Reiner, "indicate that Microsoft has been quick to sniff out this burgeoning opportunity and has begun to aggressively promote the strength of its own IP portfolio, as well as its willingness to join battle with customers that come under IP attack."

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