HW patents are useless against Android. Android is just software. If Apple want to attack OEM on hardware patents, good luck to them. Samsung, Motorola and even HTC (with S3 and even their own) have tons of HW patents, this is a game Apple cannot win as all OEM could block Apple from shipping their devices, remember, only only one patent from these OEM has to be valid to block Apple from shipping. Actually, the same can be said about software patents too...
HW patents are useless against Android. Android is just software.
It's HW patents against devices running Android.
If Apple want to attack OEM on hardware patents, good luck to them.
If? Those patents I shown are part of actual lawsuits against Samsung/Motorola in court now. This isn't a hypothetical -- I'm telling you what is happening.
Samsung, Motorola and even HTC (with S3 and even their own) have tons of HW patents, this is a game Apple cannot win as all OEM could block Apple from shipping their devices, remember, only only one patents from these OEM has to be valid to block Apple from shipping.
Apple has taken that plunge already. Again, this isn't a hypothetical. All three companies you note are in court already. All three have countersued.
I'm not saying this might happen. I'm saying it is happening. Apple has already asked, and in at least one country received, injunctions on devices.
Apple isn't sitting around saying, "Lets just use SW patents to stop Android the operating system proper". They're using HW and SW patents and trade dress, and trademark to go after Android (indirectly by targeting OEMs and devices running the SW).
Google supporters seem to think this is a fight against the evil empire of Microsoft, and want to ignore Apple exists. It would be convenient if they didn't, but the fact of the matter is that Apple is likely to be the real fly in the ointment. MS might slow Android down, but it'll be Apple who crushes it.
You're right. I never liked when Apple started waging war on Android over IP, especially in light of their wholesale copying of Android's notification system, for example, but it didn't seem particularly out of character, and it seemed in line with Steve Jobs being offended by Android.
But Apple teaming up with Microsoft is what made the issue cross some threshold for me. Individual corporations acting in independent self-interest is one thing, but industry incumbents forming a cartel to shut out competition, even if it still counts as self-interest, for me crosses a line.
> If? Those patents I shown are part of actual lawsuits against Samsung/Motorola in court now
Apple would use the patents regardless of the OS the phones were running. It's not Google's job to defend Motorola from any kind of patent problem - and Motorola owns quite a lot of patents in the mobile segment they can use to get cross-licensing from Apple. I doubt HTC and Samsung have the same luck.
> They're using HW and SW patents and trade dress, and trademark to go after Android
The only reason Apple is not going against WP7 phones is because WP7 doesn't represent a threat. If it ever does, Apple will use their prodigious legal to provide an excuse to phone makers to stop wasting money making the WP7 phones they have to make in order to reduce the Microsoft tax on Android phones.
