Paranoia May be Healthy
Apple has reason to be skeptical of competitors swooping in on its ideas. In the early 1980s, Bill Gates' Microsoft Corporation worked closely with Apple in developing software for the new Macintosh operating system. Two years earlier, Gates' company had begun work on what would become the first version of Windows. Apple allowed Microsoft to view code to develop Word and MultiPlan (the precursor to Excel). Gates urged then-Apple CEO John Sculley to outsource and license the operating system but Apple refused. After Macintosh sales dipped in 1985, Microsoft went forward with Windows. Sculley and Apple executives were so upset at the similarities between the Mac OS and Windows that they threatened to sue Microsoft. Instead, the two companies entered into an agreement that would avoid a lawsuit. When Gates used similar elements in Windows 2.0, Apple filed a lawsuit in 1988 stating Windows used several visual interfaces that were clearly derived from the Macintosh. It wouldn't be until 1993 that a decision in Microsoft's favor would come. In 1997, Microsoft pumped $100 million into Apple, finally melting more than a decade of icy relations.
Controversy with Apple
One of Palm's key features, an attribute that made it even more appealing to some, was its ability to sync with iTunes. It didn't take long for Apple to come out with an iTunes update that rendered the feature useless. Apple, a notoriously hyper-proprietary company, took less than a month to come out with the update along with this statement:
"Apple designs the hardware and software to provide seamless integration of the iPhone and iPod with iTunes, the iTunes Store, and tens of thousands of apps on the App Store. Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software. However, Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple's iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players [source: Apple]."
Palm made the next move when it issued the webOS 1.1 update in July 2009. This time, webOS tricked iTunes into thinking the Pre was an iPod classic, thus allowing it to sync seamlessly [source: Arya]. But that's not the end of the story.
In September 2009, Apple released iTunes 9. Again, the backdoor created by Palm was shut. So what did Palm do? You guessed it, the company released WebOS 1.2 that re-enabled syncing. As of this writing, Apple's sync fix has yet to re-emerge.
The two companies have drawn clearly decisive lines. In the Apple camp, you have the intellectual property argument, by which the company means the unauthorized use of iTunes. On the other hand, Palm says, essentially, that if people have paid for content, they should be able to access it regardless of what platform they use to access it. Palm owners can also choose not to upgrade to iTunes 9. Those who are using iTunes 8.2.1 can still sync their Pres with webOS 1.1.
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