Want To Make An Android Phone? That'll Be $15 To Apple. $5 To Microsoft. $0 To Google.
This is where things start to get really interesting. Reports Ian Sherr for Dow Jones Newswire:
The consumer-electronics company [Apple] has put forth proposals to Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. to settle some pending litigation in exchange for royalty payments to license its patents, among other terms, these people said.
But:
Apple isn’t attempting to offer patent licenses to all its competitors or create a royalty business, one person familiar with the matter said.
Okay, so what are they doing then? The key may be here:
One factor is that Android has proliferated so widely that shutting the software out of the market using injunctions is no longer practical, one of the people said. Licensing is an alternative that could add cost to Android development and make it less appealing for manufacturers.
In other words, if this report is correct, Apple is simply taking a new approach in their battle to destroy Android. Instead of suing them out of existence, they may take a page from Microsoft’s playbook and demand a fee that will make the OEM partners think twice about using the “free” Android software.
Put another way, it’s a shift from “fuck you” to “fuck you pay me”, as I previously wrote about last December. This seems to be playing out exactly as this Bloomberg report predicted.
If Microsoft is getting $5 for each Android device sold from many OEMs, and Apple starts getting another $5-$15, that’s a lot of money to be paying to use an OS that was previously completely free.
It has been reported that Steve Jobs said he would be willing to spend all of Apple’s money to destroy Android. Right or wrong, Tim Cook may be opting for the more economically viable approach.
iPad 3: Who Will Buy One, and Why? [INFOGRAPHIC]
![iPad 3: Who Will Buy One, and Why? [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/125,iPad3_IG_600b.jpg)
How well will the iPad 3 sell when it’s introduced next month? Who’s going to upgrade, and who will sit on the sidelines, enjoying their current version of the iPad, or no iPad at all? We have answers to those questions and more in this exclusive infographic created by the experts at AYTM Researc…
parislemon: What If... (Office For iPad Edition)
Watching the back-and-forth yesterday about the whole Microsoft Office for iPad thing was nothing if not amusing. The basic rundown:
“It’s coming, here it is.” “That’s not it.” “Yes it is.” “No it’s not, but we didn’t say it’s not coming.” “A Microsoft employee showed it to us.” “No…
To illustrate how much Twitter drove our global dialogue, we culled the most talked-about topics into a crossword puzzle. Click here for the answers.
The World’s Most Innovative Companies: Twitter
Sales of Charles Dickens books in the author’s lifetime. Great Expectations at the very bottom is proof popular taste in any given era is no prediction of timeless genius.
Now, What About Chrome For iOS?
“It’s a tough question for us.”
That’s what Google SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai told me when I asked him about the possibility of Chrome launching on iOS one day. I ask, of course, because Chrome just launched in beta for Android users (well, Ice Cream Sandwich users) today.
Pichai elaborated…
Who’s the greatest innovator of all time? Despite their fondness for smartphones and social networking, young Americans still say it’s the guy largely responsible for electric lighting.
That’s just one conclusion from this year’s Lemelson-MIT Innovation Index, which surveys Americans 16 to 25 and gauges their attitudes to invention. This year’s results also suggest they’d like more opportunities to hone their abilities in the area: 80% expressed interest in courses or training to hone their creativity. (h/t Mashable)
THIS IS INSANITY. What’s next, autobots and autopilot drones taking up the entire world as we know it and defeating the entire purpose of maintaining large numbers of troops.
We tend to forget the impact social media has had on lives. Here’s a quick snapshot of the impact of Facebook alone as it files for the IPO.
Social Figures According to Facebook, these are their current use statistics: We had 845 million MAUs as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 39% as compared to 608 million MAUs as of December 31, 2010. We had 483 million daily active users (DAUs) on average in December 2011, an increase of 48% as compared to 327 million DAUs in December 2010. We had more than 425 million MAUs who used Facebook mobile products in December 2011. There were more than 100 billion friend connections on Facebook as of December 31, 2011. Our users generated an average of 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day during the three months ended December 31, 2011. (via Facebook has 845 million monthly users, and other interesting S-1 facts - The Next Web)
SOPA Is Inevitable
Marco Arment has this exactly right. We may have beaten these variations of SOPA and PIPA, but the sad fact of that matter is that they — or something like them — will eventually pass.
Obviously, all things being equal, such bills should never pass. But all things aren’t equal. As with most things, this is actually all about money. The MPAA and the other content lobbies are going to continue to pump money into this until they get what they want.
And again, they will. Consider this: SOPA and PIPA came this close to passing with MPAA head Chris Assclown Dodd banned from direct lobbying. Why is he banned? Because there’s a law that requires politicians to be two years out of office before they can lobby.
Dodd vacated his U.S. Senate seat on January 3, 2011. In a year, he’ll be able lobby all he wants. He’ll be able to directly buy the support of all his former colleagues. He spent 36 years in Washington as both a Senator and Congressman. You think that doesn’t matter? He’s going to be the best lobbyist ever. Which is exactly why the MPAA picked him.
Arment’s hope that people stop supporting the MPAA by stopping watching films clearly isn’t going to happen. But the idea of supporting campaign finance reform to eliminate bullshit lobbying is a good one.
Need better talent? Shake up your hiring process.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Anders has a theory about talent, detailed in his latest book, The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else. Companies are focused on their short-term needs, rather than thinking big and keeping their eyes open for the people who’ll really drive the business forward. We explored the topic with him in a recent phone interview. Here’s part two of our discussion.
How does one innovate in the talent search field?
Explaining Income Taxes with Beer
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
- The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
- The fifth would pay $1.
- The sixth would pay $3.
- The seventh would…
When Google Met Facebook
Day 67 of the Google Search+ (Antitrust+) debacle. Today brings a few new entrants, notably Harvard professor and security expert Ben Edelman who argues (yet again) that Google is unfairly pumping their own products. Also joining the discussion is my CrunchFund partner Michael Arrington.
Michael and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on things (see: Android vs. iPhone — though note, for the record, that we’re now both happy iPhone users). But here I mainly agree with his premise that Google shoving Google+ into Search isn’t insane or evil, it was inevitable. Further, he cites Microsoft’s IE antitrust case as precedent for why these arguments now won’t really matter in the long run.
I agree. Google is going to face legal scrutiny over their actions, likely sooner rather than later. But at best, this will drag on for years and end with Google getting a slap on the wrist (though in Europe it may be more like a punch in the stomach). The end will still justify the means — Google will be better positioned to compete with Facebook as a result of their actions.
But that doesn’t make them right.
Photo by Neil Krug
