Saturday, July 25, 2009

Palm Continues to Taunt Apple

Palm has taken a decision to re-syncing its Pre Web OS to iTunes. This follows iTunes issuing an update to block their previous hook up.

The question now is whether this latest twist will end up in court? On June 16, Apple issued an iTunes support document that said it does "not provide support" for non-Apple hardware that attempts to use iTunes for synchronizing content from a Mac or Windows PC. Palm’s openness would suggest that they are taunting Apple and expecting a reaction. If Apple were to turn the other cheek then it may be an open invitation for others to follow and could undermine iTune dominance in the market. Others see it as strengthening iTunes in the same way that the adoption of MP3 made it more attractive to a wider audience.

However there is another viewpoint that Apple is open to the Palm approach in that Palm hasn't done anything to Apple's software, only its own Web OS software and therefore there is little that they can do legally. Palm has not violated Apple’s software so has not infringed any copyright.

Until there is clarity, or the Apple engineers devise code that prohibits Palm, it would appear that Palm wish to continue to synch to iTunes software and taunt Apple.

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