Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster fame, posted an open letter to Steve Jobs about the recent lawsuits Apple started against HTC. You can find it on his blog: Call Me Fishmeal.
My first reaction to the news of the lawsuit is similar to that of Wil. However I do realize that sometimes Apple does something that I disapprove of, and the real reasons and motives for it reveal themselves much later. An example of this is the way Apple kept the SW ecosystem for the iPhone under tight control. It just felt wrong since day one. But it suddenly made sense to me recently: I can now see why it’s the correct thing to do.
I still have several doubts about the way they are handling some things (for example the recent “censorship” attitude of the app approval process). But I now feel that there may be some good reasons that are not obvious to me. Something I’m just missing.
So I’m going to be somewhat cautious in criticizing Apple. But crossing the line and actually aggress, instead of using the patent portfolio for defense only, sounds bad to me. Very bad. Therefore, with this post, I’m going to officially sign Wil’s open letter. But stressing the fact that the letter is written not as a critique. It’s a friendly consideration. An expression of our “gut feelings”.
It could maybe have been a request for clarification, if the recipient was not Steve. But it is Steve, and neither Wil nor myself are as deluded as Adobe’s John Dowdell about Apple communicating their reasons.
