Here's the wrinkle, the thrux of the matter, the real nitty gritty... Apple isn't suing Amazon, HTC, Samsung, and
now Motorola because they genuinely believe their ideas are being copied. In fact, Apple's lawsuits have nothing to do with any of these companies. There is one singular pattern emerging from all this... there is only one common denominator: Android.
A new report from ABI Research indicates that in just 12 months time, Google's Android based tablets have taken a 20% chunk out of Apple's iPad marketshare. While it's true that no single manufacturer of a tablet has been able to mount any significant threat to the iPad...
taken as a whole, the multiple Android manufacturers aren't just eroding Apple's marketshare in the tablet market, they are slicing through it aggressively. It's precisely because Android doesn't come from just one particular manufacturer that makes it such a monumental threat to Apple. It can attack from multiple angles.
It is very likely that Android's "meteoric" rise to dominance in the
smartphone industry scared the crap out of Apple. Now, they are having a terrifying "deja vu" experience in the tablet industry, and see the exact same thing repeating itself with Android for tablets "ramping" up to crush the iPad.
Apple isn't confident that it can go after Google directly or beat it in the marketplace, so it has chosen instead to assault Android indirectly in the courts by going after the manufacturers that make Android products. This is a devious plan, and simply smacks of desperation.
In many ways, it is a very sad tale. Apple is actually a pretty amazing company and has always been a leader in innovation. I even consider myself to be a fan of Apple. They pioneered some of the greatest technological phases in human history, but for some reason they always choose to remain a "closed" system. This ultimately leads to their downfall, just like when Microsoft beat them in the past with PC's versus Macs. It may be true that for the longest time Macs were a better product than any PC (and it could be argued that they still are), but it is impossible to deny that when it comes to market proliferation, they got the "snot beat out of them." Windows based PCs control a vast majority of the world's home computer markets, and Mac OS computers hold maybe 15%.
History is repeating itself with Android vs. iOS, and unless Apple decides to become more "open-minded," their fate is already sealed; they will again be relegated to a "niche" market spot. Fighting their competitors by abusing the legal system will not stop it, and simply just smacks of "bad form."
Does anyone else see this same pattern? Isn't it obvious?
