Mark Bridge writes:
It’s not just me, is it? The mobile industry really has gone a bit litigation crazy.
Nokia versus Apple. Apple versus Nokia. Nokia versus Apple again.
Motorola against RIM.
Kodak versus Samsung. Kodak versus LG.
Kodak versus Apple. Kodak versus RIM.
And those are just a few recent cases involving manufacturers.
Now we have Apple pitting itself against HTC in a case that could be a sign of a wider complaint against Google’s Android operating system. Google’s even issued a response despite not being named in Apple’s legal action.
Although there’s a chance this’ll be resolved without the help of the courts, it’s possible to imagine a scenario where one manufacturer complains about another and manages to block sales of the offending devices.
Consumers who’d bought one of the offending handsets could have key functionality disabled to satisfy the complainant… and that would lead to consumers receiving compensation from their original retailer.
We already have takeaway coffee cups that warn us about the risks of boiling water, apple pie wrappers that alert us about the hot filling and well-publicised peanut packets that state the obvious. It can’t be long before mobile phone packaging makes it very clear that any features could be changed or disabled without warning. With a valid legal complaint, your smartphone could be dumbed-down overnight!