So, in case anyone isn't aware, Apple made this thing called the iPad. You may have heard of it. 10" tablet, basically an iPhone without the phone, single handedly reshaped the definition of tablet PC, and depending on your technical prowess, either streamlined or dumbed down the expectations of computer interfaces as a whole.
We all remember that, right? Good. Let's move on.
A little over a year later, Apple commands over 90% of this new tablet market. Mostly due to Apple being well, Apple, and that there really haven't been any strong competitors to the iPad, at least none that were able to gain any commercial traction. Samsung launched the Galaxy Tab a few months after the iPad, but running on Android 2.2, it didn't really present an experience as optimized as the iPad. This changed when Google launched Android 3.0 Honeycomb, a tablet optimized version of their OS, and Motorola launched the Xoom, the first Honeycomb tablet. While priced a little too high to sell amazingly well, it set the precedent for all major Android tablets to come. And now, a year later, Samsung's second shot at Android Tabs, the 10.1, 8.9, and newly announced 7.7, are ready to take on the iPad full force.
Of course, Apple finds itself in a very uncharacteristic situation in the new tablet market of controlling marketshare equivalent to its mindshare. Unlike Macs, where they are typically considered the best by the average consumer but rarely purchased due to the high price, the iPad is priced low enough that everyone who wants one can afford it. This monopoly on a market of their own creation, along with Apple's boasts of the iPad moving the industry into the "post-PC era" allows Apple, if unimpeded, to do something its never been able to accomplish before: Have complete dominance in the computer industry as it moves away from the typical desktop/laptop combo, and to the tablet and smartphone.
This is a future I personally cannot fathom, as I couldn't do what I do without the power and flexibility of a true PC, but I can easily see tablets becoming the de facto choice for the average consumer, as they are simple to use, streamlined, portable devices designed with the consumer in mind, and if Apple becomes the number one choice here, fine. They're an obvious fit, with their obsession with sexy form factors and UI design catered to the tech-retarded.
But there needs to be choice. And this is something that Apple apparently will not allow.
Over the last few months, Apple has been suing competing electronics manufacturers left and right, attempting to prevent devices that would compete with the iPad from being sold. And for the most part, they've been largely successful. Just yesterday Apple was able to pull Samsungs newest tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.7, from the IFA show floor in Germany. This device was announced at this trade show, it isn't even on sale yet, but Apple was able to have it removed from the show because the design apparently "infringes on it's design patents". They did the same thing with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 last month, and have been attacking Samsung, as well as HTC and Motorola on the phone front under similarly vague patent infringement claims.
Now, this is ridiculous. If you didn't bother reading all the articles I linked, I'll summarize. Basically, Apple is suing all these companies because incredibly basic qualities of these competing devices it claims to have a patent on, things like "multitouch" "scrolling menus" and the phyiscal design of the iPad and iPhone, which apparently means any device thats a rounded rectangle with a touch screen. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Apple didn't invent multitouch, it didn't invent scrolling menus, and is CERTAINLY didn't invent rounded rectangles. This is just a blatent attempt by Apple to shut down competition before these products begin to take marketshare from their "magical" products at a "revolutionary" price (or, in the case of the iPhone, take more, as Android now commands a full 10% more marketshare than the iPhone).
If there were legitimate infringement here I could at least understand, but there isn't, they're bending principle as much as possible to get what they want. Add in the high probability that Apple has been intentionally modifying product photos to make it look like these devices are more similar to their own, and we have a big problem on our hands.
Twenty-six years ago, Apple launched the original Macintosh, on the idea that they were all that stood between IBM and a complete market monopoly. Where one company, in charge of both hardware and software, could dictate the direction and trends of the industry on a whim, where only they would come out ahead.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
