Apple (Steve Jobs, et al.) has been awarded the multi-touch patent on January 20th, 2009. This means less competition for iPhone multi-touch technology which is one of the great mobile phone innovations.
A similar technology seems to have been used in the upcoming Palm Pre phone and Apple COO Tim Cook has said that Apple will not let their intellectual property get ripped off. This could result in an interesting fight between the two as Palm has collected numerous patents over the years and if they find something in their portfolio to go against Apple for, Sprint customers might actually see a device like iPhone (even better for multi-tasking) available to them. They will still have a big challenge of duplicating the success of iPhone app store.
Here are the full details of Apple multi-touch patent. The patent is not available via Google patent search yet.
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In my opinion this is bad news for everyone. Firstly, I saw a demo of multi touch long before apple came out with the Iphone. Now Apple may have aquired that technology - I don't know, but even if they did, there is a fine line between protecting ones 'property' and stifling inovation.
From the rumors I'm reading on the web, it seems that Apple are aiming their legal guns at Palm over the Palm Pre. I personally hope that this doesn't happen. It would be bad for Palm and bad for Apple. Bad for Palm for the obvious reasons, but bad for Apple as without competition, then what is the insentive to stay on top of the game?
Anyway, sorry for the rant - just my two cents...
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