Thursday, January 22, 2009

Does Palm's webOS copy Apple's iPhone OS?

When Palm CEO Ed Colligan was on stage at CES 2009 and introduced an entirely new platform for the next gen Palm's future smartphones, everyone at the converence room including all of us who watched or even heard later of the new webOS™ were all amazed.

But apparently, the word amazed has a different meaning for Apple when the company who make iPhone learn more about webOS™ capabilities; especially the multi-touch interface. The story first divulged in a question from a financial analyst about the Palm's Prē™ particular feature, which then Apple COO Tim Cook gave a response in a statement on Apple's quarterly earnings call Wednesday:

"I’m just making a general statement that we think competition is good; it makes us all better. And we’re ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP (Intellectual Property) ripped off and we’ll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal. I don’t know that I can be more clear than that."

Although Cook didn't exactly pointing his finger to Palm and its new webOS™/Prē™ by saying: "I don't want to talk about any specific company," we all know that almost Palm's key executives are former Apple employees back then and everybody can't help but to notice the ice-cold stare of Cook's eyes are specifically glaring at Palm executive chairman Jon Rubinstein (who had been converting a slew of Apple engineers into Palm camp since he joined the company).

But is it fact that webOS™ multi-touch interface copy iPhone's? We'll have to wait until Palm launches the Prē™, because that's when Apple's bloody-sharks (read: lawyers) will start slapping Palm with piles of IP infringement papers. If this whole thing is true then believe me, it's gonna get ugly...

Sources are from iPhone Atlas & BGR.

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