[azakai]

It's remarkable the legal lengths to which Apple and Microsoft are going to try to stop Android, but it looks like they are having little or no effect.

Lawyers get paid, some silly patents get worked around, but that's about it it seems.

[thought_alarm]

It's all about the carriers.

A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants an iPhone. He'll get an iPhone.

A guy walks into an AT&T store and wants a Windows Phone. He'll probably be talked into an Android.

A guy walks into an AT&T store without a clue. He'll walk out with an Android. It's the most profitable for the carrier, because it's perhaps the only smartphone left that grants the carrier full control over how it's configured and what software is bundled.

Patent attacks against individual Android manufacturers and individual models are irrelevant. Your carrier will always have a wall of indistinguishable Android phones for the next customer to choose from.

[rjd]

Indded, one of my friends went to buy a windows phone recently, c# dev looking for a phone he could work on.

The clerk literally told him they only have display models and don't hold stock and that he'd been told not to push them. The clerk couldn't even organise for a windows phone to arrive at the store so my friend decided he'd try learning obj-c and walked out with an iphone 3G (as said dev is a jaded ex-java enterprise programmer and hates the language with a vengeance).

[ars]

Seriously? They didn't have the phone he wanted so he let them sell him something else entirely?

[rjd]

From what I got told he asked which store had one and he was told none of them do, he asked to order one and they said they wouldn't from the store but he could order online. The guy is a grumpy troll of a man so I would of imagined him loosing his temper and just demanding something else. I know his old phone had stopped working so he did have a little pressure to get a phone ASAP, but yep I raised my eye brows as well considering he is a known to rant about Apple (but I assume the hate is less than what he holds for java).

[therobotking]

That story is quite hard to believe if I'm honest.

I'm guessing a Windows phone developer would own a windows pc and not a Mac as you say he is known to "rant about apple". Since you need a Mac to develop/publish for iOS would he really buy an iPhone, learn obj-c and buy a Mac just because the store he visited didn't stock Windows phones?

[rjd]

The bit I found hard to believe wasn't that he ended up an iPhone, it was that the store was essentially refusing to sell windows phones.

Anyway just dual boot you're desktop its really straight forward these days.

I recently rekitted my workstation to a i5. To install lion was literally as easy as boot off a USB drive, insert the install lion USB drive, let it do its thing, grab the associated drivers and put them onto your desktop, run the MultiBeast tool. Bingo running OSX.

[tlack]

Your friend should consider doing a full-length blog post about this, naming the carrier he visited. That's a pretty shocking story.

[rjd]

Vodafone New Zealand was the carrier. Store was in Wellington.

[nextparadigms]

Not to mention that it seems most of Microsoft's patents are worthless when they are tested in Court. 6 out of 7 of, which I assume are some of their best patents if they used them in the lawsuit, have been declared invalid.

http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseI...

If the manufacturers currently paying Microsoft patent fees man up and take Microsoft to Court, they could break free, too, or at the very least pay 7 times less of what they are paying now, if their other patents are just as worthless.

But seriously, how could anyone even think the current patent system is even close to being fine when most of the tested patents in Court are being declared invalid? (I believe Apple also got about 18 out of 20 of their patents invalidated in Europe). This is ridiculous.

[cooldeal]

Motorola's press release is trying to spin the news into a positive for them. Better coverage here http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/20/itc-judge-issues-initial-...

> ...have been declared invalid.

Someone specific declared not infringing on a patent is not the same as the patent being declared invalid.

[admiralpumpkin]

I think you've wrongly inferred motives in both cases.

MS, as always, is about the money. There have been many articles recently suggesting that MS might be making more money off of Android than Google itself. As proof, see willingness to license.

Apple, as always, is about the art. Right or wrong, they are offended that anyone would use their creation. They will litigate out of principle. As proof, see (general) unwillingness to license.

To be clear, I'm not at all addressing the issue of whether or not the patents are valid, or whether patents in general are good; I'm just ascribing motivations.

[rimantas]

  > It's remarkable the legal lengths to which Apple and
  > Microsoft are going to try to stop Android,

Microsoft is making money with each Android phone sold, so I am not so sure what legal lengths are you talking about.

[beernutz]

Probably lengths like this:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/itc-initial-...