[IxDA Discuss] Apple's Gesture Dictionary

[Mark Schraad]

Though they may have spawned from the bay area, home of free love and all that,  Apple is very much a FOR PROFIT company. Why should they give away intellectual property rights? Is there an ethical obligation when working in the UI world?   

I understand that open systems can be beneficial to both community and to the inventors. I disdain, from a consumer perspective, the silo-ing that has for years held telephony back. I also understand the benefits to a brand for letting technology become an open system. Lastly, I totally understand giving technology away to establish industry standard (postcript, pdf, flash, etc). Explain to me, a coherent BUSINESS strategy for giving the rights to Apple's gesture technology away so early. How will this benefit Apple? 

Marf

 
On Monday, August 06, 2007, at 12:57PM, "pauric" <radiorental at gmail.com> wrote:
>Bearing in mind this discussion is about events that have not, or may
>not, happen.
>
>Apple could have just as easily released this in to the public
>domain, making the design non-patentable.  Even if they dont enforce
>it, the patent cloud will restrict universal implementation.
>
>I believe its shortsighted in the sense that, if implemented and
>enforced, it makes it difficult for non-native speakers to easily
>move to your devices. And visa versa, consumers will tolerate bad
>design because they invested in your language.
>
>As an effective incumbent in the mobile device segment, they are
>acting as a monopoly. Locking users in makes perfect sense in the
>short term, however it can take the edge off striving for the best
>possible design.  Winning because of strategically captured consumer
>pawns not on the merits of your R&D. 
>
>Show me an incumbent monopoly that consumers dont hate...  the iPod
>wins because it does one thing and it does it well, the i-tunes
>lock-in is secondary.  Things are not so simple in a multifunction
>mobile device playing field.  Apple does make design mis-steps
>(Newton was an unmitigated disaster, .mac is a #$%^ing joke) To lock
>users in with an gesture language is setting yourself up for
>complacency and failure.
>
>
>That said,  I agree with your take on business development and
>patents. Thats just part of the imperfect world we live in.
>
>regards - pauric
>
>
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>http://beta.ixda.org/discuss?post=18934
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