Dear Steve Jobs
via The Wall Street Journal:
Apple Inc. launched a legal broadside against a key Google Inc. partner in the mobile-phone market, in a further sign of the escalating tensions between the two Silicon Valley companies.
Apple of Cupertino, Calif., alleged numerous patent violations in lawsuits against HTC Corp., the Taiwan-based manufacturer of smart phones, including high-profile models like Nexus One, that use Google's Android operating system. Apple's two complaints – filed in federal court in Delaware and the U.S. International Trade Commission – allege that HTC devices infringe a total of 20 Apple patents covering an array of cellphone technologies, including everything from power management functions to a method of unlocking a handset through a finger swipe on a touch-screen.
"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in a statement. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
It's been a long time coming, Steve, but it's finally happened. Apple is now 'the Man'. There, I said it. Why is that, you ask, Steve? Well, take a gander at you in 1996. The quote is now synonymous with your pushing Apple to new heights as a force in the tech world. As simple and innocent as it seemed at the time, your use of that mantra is almost laughable in contrast to your legal proceedings today. Steve, you can't put a lid on innovation, and you know that. Regardless of whether HTC's interfaces or fingerswipes or whatever are reminiscent of the iPhone, there's no way you can claim that they 'stole' anything when you yourself are an advocate of theft. You're like a kid cheating on a test who gets mad when someone else is cheating off of him. Steve, realize that there are NO new ideas under the sun, just improvements and innovation around existing ones. Microsoft found that out the hard way when you and Apple took the world by storm with the iPod, and you're finding that out now...
Anyway, back to my original point about you guys becoming 'the Man.'Some of the delineations of being 'the Man' (for me, at least) are A) a previous stint as a leader in their field, B) a novel lack of originality, and C) an overzealous need to thwart competition, no matter how far-fetched the claims are. Hmmmmmmmm.... That sounds a hell of a lot like what you're doing now, Steve. Everyone loved Apple four years ago because they were on the cutting edge of design and technology (A). Now, you guys are struggling to come up with new ideas, with crap like the iPad coming out and no new stuff on the horizon for a WHILE (B). And today, you sealed the deal as 'the Man' by coming at HTC over technology that damn near every phone has or will have in the future. Steve, look at yourself. No really, look at yourself, because that's who you should be getting mad at. Instead of flinging dirt at the competition, you should be on your grizzy, coming up with technology that aren't just bigger versions of your older products...
