" You can’t just lock competitors out of your software so you can sell more hardware "

In law you can, as long as its part of the licence. In this case Apple (manufacturer) has the right to do what it wants with its product. Anti trust law does not apply, as Apple is not a monopoly on the media its selling. Palm could use Amazon or any other outlet for media.

If it were Apps the situation is different as it is the only place to legally install the Apps from, however the App store does not apply to Palm.

It is the same defence that you would use if you run a bar. You can sell / offer your service to whoever you want, and bar whoever you want. If you barred a person from drinking in your bar, and they kept breaking in to have a drink you would be in your rights to try and stop them. It matters not if they want to drink quietly or not, you still hold the key.


In this case Palm will be the ultimate loser.

They cant say that Apple offered the service to them and took it away (breaking agreed and implied by time contracts). They cannot say that Apple implied use (as they did not). They cannot say Anti Trust, as Palm has many ways of getting music (even from iTunes), so they are not locked out of the media.

Palm are playing the poor little picked on card at the moment, but in the past it was not the most open of companies when trying to use its tools and code. Plam OS has never been open source to the point that other companies can use it (except for Sony on licence) and its data file's (just like MS and Apple) were bespoke. They did not make these open to all at the time.

The upshot of this is that Apple has not legal binding to anyone who is not bought into Apple software/hardware experience. The changing of money for service and goods gives you that support. Palm has not done this so should expect to be dumped again at the next iteration of iTunes.

If I were fortuate enough to be able to get a Pre I think I would just use some other software for media management. Over the air might be the way (especially with that sexy charger). But Palm should suck it up and go legit. It makes it look weak, like a kid throwing stones and running away. For all those who think Apple should not block this well the fact is that they have to. To leave it will imply that its willing for all other devices to sync and if it lets that go eventually it will be statutory by vertue of it being the norm. Then Apple are in trouble.

The Pre is a productivity phone ????? wtf does that mean.

I assume you must work for Palm as you have already made this bold statement for a device that no one has used yet.

Like Aus, and the rest of the world, we in the UK are not invited to the PRE party.

We will I'm sure be invited to the N97, iPhone-3, HTC Magic and Omnia HD parties, so good news there.

Lets see a GSM Pre, on a good carrier over here before long, because if not, you have just a US centric phone, that will seriously miss the boat over here.

I'm not sure that the USA market will be big enough to make the Pre a success, which is a shame, but Palm only have themselfs to blame for being short sighted.

I hope the Pre is good, and lives up to the Engadget sponsored hype, I hope that it rules, and makes billions of dollars. Then maybe people will have something new to snipe at instead of poor WinMob and iPhone (Fanboys).

Here is the cool equation.

Pre first month of launch = if you have one, you are COOL, and everyone REALLY want to know you.
2nd - 4th Month of launch = if you have one, you are cool, and some people are interested.
5th month of launch onwards = you are a sheep, people will say you are just jumping on a bandwagon, and essentialy you are uncool for not standing out in the crowd.

So get all the Halo glory in the first three months I think.

Final Cylon is them self. Just like the end of the prisoner. That means everyone is a Cylon.

Great Post.

My wife has Epilepsy, and its a 24hour battle to get understanding and expectance, let alone having people make it worse with 'pranks' like this.

No doubt its a sign of the times, but we all have to accept that some people are just scum, and they always will be. Cowards too in many cases, as the person or persons that have done this do not seem to have come out of the shadows and own up to their 'work'.

If they plan a massive charge on the data tarrif its toast in my book. Here's hoping its not.

@Dave

SUFU !!!!!.. Is that the best you can do.

Look, if the iPhone is such a hammerblow in technology history then why is it only being released in limited quantities, limited geographic location, limited functionality.

The iPhone is a PHONE, lots of phones are on the market that does some or all of what the iPhone does. Some do some things better, some do some things worse. As it is a phone however its does NOTHING new. Its just the software thats the main selling point, thats it.

When its selling million of units because you have to have it I will belive the hype. The iPod did that, so did the Razr, so did the Walkman, so did the gameboy.

I doubt very much that the iPhone will be viewed in the fullness of time as nothing more than a souped up iPod that makes phone calls.

If its a .mac resource available on the iPhone only I will be very upset as us .mac subscribers here in the UK do not get iPhones until the end of the year.

@tnkgrl

Good comments, I agree.

Been looking at an N95 for some time (I'm in the UK) and we in the EU are not deemed worthy of the iPhone yet.

I use an N800, a Mio 701 and 80Gb Ipod.. So three devices, and the question I have to have answered is will the iPhone be able to replace any of these.

I suspect not, but we have 6 months of the US getting, reviewing, breaking, returning and getting over the hype. Only then will be get a true USERS review of the iPhone. Thats what I want.

Have to agree with comment 7

The iPhone looks great and will sell loads, but not here in the European corporate market, not unless it can run OWA and push E-mail down.

Thats what I want to see.

The other is the growing trend for companies to put GPS into phones. I have a Mio701 running Mobile 5 and TomTom which works great. Maybe with some super wifi and google you can get something similar on the iPhone, but not here in Europe (Google is still US Centric).

By the time the iPhone is here I have a nasty feeling the phone world will have moved on. The new SE walkman phones sport 9Gb Flash, and nice (not iPhone granted) but good interfaces, and they will be cheap or free compaired to the apple device.

To me this is the first time in a long time that Apple shows signs of dropping the ball. If you don't open up the development of the phone, you will get all the business and smart development going elsewhere.

If big companies like Sony, Nokia and the like can open the phones to third party, why not Apple. And IF web2 development apps being offered do the same as a full blooded SDK why not offer the SDK as well ???

It has to exist ??