After letting the initial dust Apple kicked towards HTC settle, my iPhone-toting compatriot Rene (I think you guys know him or something) and I had a discussion about the patent lawsuit and Apple in general. It was kicked off by this video dug up by the fine chaps at Gizmodo, and it made me realize, at least from my perspective atop my pile of defective Palm Pre phones, that Apple has changed as a company over the past year. Now before you go thinking that I’m so Apple-hating bozo from Cincinnati, be warned that I do like Apple products: I’ve been using and loving a MacBook Pro of one variety or another for the last six years, upgrade to the next version of OS X the day it’s available, and own both an Airport Extreme and an Apple TV. But I’m worried that Apple’s recent successes may be leading to a dark place. And that place is the land where innovation is forgotten.

Apple’s attack on HTC underscores two things for me. One: user interface patents are silly. It’s like patenting the chair and saying nobody else can make chairs and they’ll have to figure out different ways for people to sit. And no, couches and benches aren’t cool, they’re just big chairs. Two: Apple seems to have forgotten how to innovate and sees lawsuits as the only way to protect their business model.

It seems mighty silly to me to think that Apple is worried about HTC knocking off the iPhone as king of the smartphone hill. The iPhone is still relatively fresh (two and a half years on market) and the smartphone market itself is rapidly expanding. As Palm CEO Job Rubinstein says: there’s plenty of room for several large players. And I think I’d like it that way. Not just so Palm can stay around, but because having several large players ensures that there are multiple parties spurring innovation in each other and that the failing of one doesn’t result in the complete and utter dominance of the only other platform. In this case, the smartphone market is more like the automobile industry and less like the Windows-Mac duopoly that is desktop computing.

Either way, my fear is that Apple is instead going to rely on these sort of lawsuits as a way to maintain their fledgling dominance of the smartphone market. But it’s only going to result in really bad PR for Apple. The only claims that they can make are claims in principle that HTC is violating their patents, while HTC can argue in principle that those patents are a silly thing anyway. Apple certainly can’t argue that HTC’s alleged patent violations are cutting into Apple’s ridiculous profit margin - the people that buy Android or Windows phones aren’t the type that are out to buy an iPhone anyway, and it’s not like there’s a person on the planet that hasn’t heard of the iPhone.

But as I think of it, this whole lawsuit feels indicative of a new mindset at Apple. It’s been a large, but unnoticed, shift in the way they do business. Apple has move away from being the underdog innovator to being a defensive maintainer. Look back at the products Apple has unveiled in the past year and tell me what’s truly innovative:

• 3rd gen iPod Shuffle? We moved the controls to the earbuds just because. It doesn’t make any sense, but we’ll do it anyway.

• iPhone 3GS? Make it faster and give it more memory. Pack it all into the same package as before and let’s call it a day. Wait, no, let’s call it the 3GS - it’s much more hip that way.

• iPhone OS 3.0? MMS and tethering! And a whole tone of new APIs for unexplored niche products, just because we can. The iPhone user experience? No need to change that. It works, and it can’t possibly be made better.

• New MacBook Pros? We’re going to revolutionize the laptop computer by adding, wait for it, SD card readers! Yeah, that’s awesome and totally unlike anything anybody’s ever done before. We even did a study to see if that’s what people wanted. What they don’t want is Blu-ray or HDMI. Those are bags ‘o hurt, I say. People want iTunes.

• New iMac? Make it bigger and use a better screen. Also, a screen this big doesn’t need Blu-ray either. It’s far too good for that. Use iTunes instead; who even wants the option of 1080p video off a disc? Pfft.

• Magic Mouse? Okay, I’ll give Apple this one, adding multi-touch gestures to the mouse is a really different move. But if the mouse is the only cool thing you’ve done...

• iPad? It’s magical, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, it’s a giant iPod Touch and fails to provide and real innovation above and beyond what you can already do on an iPhone and evel loses several features, it’s the iPad! (the tech media goes wild, soils themselves, and then thinks about how silly and underwhelming the whole thing is when they’ve got new pants).

Don’t get me wrong, I still love my MBP (ExpressCard slot and all) and OS X. But Apple’s competitors are threatening to out-innovate Apple at every turn. Android 2.0 (with HTC’s help) and Palm webOS have far outpaced the iPhone OS user experience, so much so that the only thing the iPhone has going for it is all the apps and iTunes (which itself in need of something more than major innovation). Windows Phone 7 Series has turned my idea of how a mobile OS should work completely on its head, and honestly, Windows 7 ain’t that bad. I no longer dread booting up Parallels.

Now, we may very well be in a lull when it comes to Apple’s innovative progress, but these are the kind of lulls that can kill a company. Technological development is moving faster than ever and the multi-year lulls that struck Palm circa 2006 and Apple circa 1994 are the kind of lulls that can kill a company today. The market has changed so dramatically that even with arguably the most innovative mobile OS out there Palm is struggling to recover from a few years of uninspired products.

This new defensive, offensive, and numbers-touting (look at how many apps we have!) Apple worries me. Apple’s innovations have kicked the industry in the head multiple times before, but now it looks like the tables have been turned.

Of course, I could be completely wrong and be blown out of the water by iPhone OS 4.0 and OS X 10.7. But the bitter pill that the iPad, and now this lawsuit, have left me with has me concerned for Apple’s foresight. Maybe they’ve gotten too big and lost touch with what made Apple the success that it is today. But in the end, getting all defensive and trying to sue their way out of a problem is only going to hurt Apple and the industry as a whole.

Derek Kessler is editor of TiPb's sibling site, PreCentral.net.

Over the last 5 weeks of the 3rd Annual Smartphone Round Robin, the editors of our sibling sites, Casey from AndroidCentral.com, Kevin from CrackBerry.com, Matt from NokiaExperts.com, Dieter from PreCentral.net, and Phil from WMExperts.com have all had their chance to review TiPb's flagship iPhone 3GS. And we've just had to sit here and take it, the good and the bad, the raves and the rants. Well, it's week 6 now, baby, and TiPb gets to retort!

PreCentral.net's Dieter Bohn

Week 1 saw our Editor-in-Chief, Dieter Bohn, this time representing PreCentral.net, return to the iPhone he's reviewed about 5 or 6 times already, and... he was remarkably fair and I'm kind of sad there's nothing much to pick him apart over. Thanks for nothing! One of his negatives is something I've been thinking about for a while, though:

I will admit to being a little tired of the iPhone's design. It's iconic and singular, but honestly it doesn't feel as 'high end' as it once did. Not that the Palm Pre or Pixi is the picture of luxury, but sometime soon Apple will need to remember that phones are fashion and fashion changes.

iPhone 3G was indeed a departure from the original iPhone 2G; it lost the aluminum and gained a new, curved-for-thinness form. And people got really upset their cases didn't fit any more, their docks didn't fit anymore, and accused Apple of changing just to force people to re-buy all their accessories. Then the iPhone 3GS came out, new model same as the one before, and people got really upset that it wasn't refreshed. Fashionistas complained one could tell they had the new model. Both the iPhone casing and the iPhone home screen wouldn't be hurt for an update, but Apple won't win either way.

As for Dieter's conclusion:

We try not to pick winners in the Smartphone Round Robin, but rather talk about user needs and preferences. If you need apps and music, right now your choice is iPhone. If that's not big and you care about openness and multitasking, webOS has a serious leg up. What's sort of amazing is that most users don't need to dismiss either out of hand.

I'd add the mobile web to that. iPhone Safari still hasn't been exceeded and there's a reason iPhone-optimized sites are still what other mobile WebKit clients want to pull. The point itself is spot on though -- iPhone is owning the app and media space while BlackBerry owns messaging, and Android, Palm, Nokia, and WinMo battle it out over "openness" and "in-between". Multitasking we might get in a future update (iPhone 4.0?) but it's tough to see Apple loosening their ties on the App Store until and unless competition forces them to. Geeks and philosophers notwithstanding, some users and some developers prefer the level of trust a "gate-keeper"-style store provide (though Apple could certainly do better on the consistency side).

WMExperts' Phil Nickinson

Week 2 brought us Phil Nickinson, editor of WMExperts.com, and again he was frustratingly fair. He also raised some good food for thought:

Some of the best conversations surrounding smartphones these days have to do with Apple's singular vision. It designs the phones. It keeps a tight fist on the manufacturing process. It largely controls the marketing of the devices. Even the act of selling an iPhone is controlled by Apple. Want to use the iPhone? You have to connect to iTunes at least once. Apps? Only (official) way to get them is through Apple's App Store. Everything, at least at some point, must pass through Apple. Do not pass Go, head directly to Cupertino.

I've been toying with the over-simplification that iPhone involves surrendering control to Apple in exchange for user-experience, Android involves surrendering privacy to Google in exchange for free services, and BlackBerry involves surrendering serenity to RIM in exchange for constant connectivity. There's no perfect device or perfect model; everything is a compromise, and for a large swath of users, that's a good deal. They don't want to control (or have to worry about managing) their device -- they just want to easily use it.

Phil's conclusion:

We don't believe in iPhone killers. That's a phrase that was coined by writers who couldn't think of any other arguments to make. No, we're not looking for Windows Mobile 7, if and when it's announced and later released, to "kill" anything, save for maybe the bad taste that Windows Mobile 6.5 left in a lot of mouths. But even that isn't entirely fair. Microsoft announced Windows Mobile 6.5 and for the most part delivered exactly what it promised. No more, no less. A stopgap to hold things over until WM7.

Actor and gadget aficionado Stephen Fry uproariously so elegantly phrased:

Does anybody seriously believe that Android, Nokia, Samsung, Palm, BlackBerry and a dozen others would since have produced the product line they have without the 100,000 volt taser shot up the jacksie that the iPhone delivered to the entire market?

That the iPhone jumpstarted a complacent smartphone industry in 2007 is undeniable, as is the impact its made since. In that context, the media contrivance of "iPhone killer" makes sense. Until something makes that same original-iPhone-in-2007 level leap, it's likely the media will keep comparing everything to the iPhone. Steve Jobs was recently rumored to have said Google's Android wants to "kill" the iPhone, and likely the Windows Mobile team does as well. They have to if they want any hope to be competitive. No doubt the iPhone G4/4.0 team at Apple wants to kill the iPhone 3GS/3.0 as well. That is one of the keys to Apple's success.

AndroidCentral's Casey Chan

Week 3 had Casey Chan, editor of AndroidCentral.com share his thoughts on the iPhone 3GS, and forget the conclusion, he starts with the bang:

Ah, the iPhone. For better or worse, the iPhone has become the starting point for many consumers looking to buy a smartphone. In a sense, it's become the standard for everyone to measure themselves against. Because of its position at the forefront of consumer's minds and the fact that it's in everyone's pocket, that's completely fair. But because of Apple's sometimes senseless decisions in dealing with all things iPhone, it leaves the rest of us a little uneasy.

Our own Chad Garrett likes to say the iPhone is the first smartphone for everyone upgrading from the RAZR and there's some truth to that. With the iPhone, Apple mainstreamed the smartphone -- they took it from a power device for power users with a powerful requirement for tweaking, managing, and messing around with, and carefully packaged a subset of important features for the masses. That means that, for any particular user -- and especially for a power user -- there's a high chance that subset doesn't include an important feature.

That's Apple's modus operandi, however. They'd rather start limited and add slowly. They'd rather leave something out completely than add in something they don't think just works well enough. They're masters of always leaving something else on the table for the next update. And they're laser-focused on those features they consider essential for the user they're targeting.

And yes, it drives us all nuts, even as they've sold 70,000 devices on the iPhone OS platform and used it to familiarize everyone with the next-step in multitouch iPhone OS UI -- the iPad.

CrackBerry.com's Kevin Michaluk

Week 4 was our best frenemy forever, CrackBerry.com's own Kevin Michaluk and he embraces the same yin/yang theory about iPhone/BlackBerry as TiPb:

I've said it many times over the past two years, be it in blog posts, on our CrackBerry podcast, or to individuals asking advice on what device to buy, that if you want the absolute no-compromise best smartphone solution that you keep a BlackBerry in one pocket and an iPhone (or iPod Touch) in the other. Though both Apple, RIM and every other manufacturer and platform in the smartphone space for that matter have the aim of developing the one device you need (in other words they're trying to be both Yin and Yang), I still think as of now it takes two devices to have Best of Class everything. A device like the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is the ultimate communication and productivity tool, which excels in areas that matter both in enterprise (security, deployment, IT management) and to people who run their business and their lives depending on the phone, maximizing every minute of their day (one-handed speed of use, battery life, push everything, etc.). Apple hit the market with a compelling touchscreen experience that's both intuitive and enjoyable to use that fits into the Apple ecosystem of products and services (ie. iTunes) and took it to the next level by causing a revolution in the mobile app space. So while the BlackBerry is still the ultimate communication / utilty tool, the iPhone arguably remains the ultimate convergence device.

Kevin being Kevin, however, he can't resist tweaking us either. The Man who, in the first year called the iPhone 2G the iSmudge (before BlackBerry copied its black and silver design) and in the second year called it the Ah Frak Phone (on the eve of the BlackBerry Storm launch no less), decided this year he'd call the iPhone 3GS the douchebag phone (he owns one -- as do almost all the Smartphone Experts editors).

NokiaExperts' Matt Miller

Week 5 closed things out with NokiaExperts.com's Matt Miller, who like Dieter is a multi-handset mobile gadgeteer with a lot of experience and a global point of view. His take:

As a guy who has used every smartphone operating system I am also quite frustrated with the iPhone OS because I know Apple can do better as they have shown glimpses of in the past. One of the main things people mention with the iPhone OS compared to other smartphone operating systems is the lack of multi-tasking with 3rd party applications. [...] Personally, the major thing I want to see in the next version of the iPhone OS is support for some kind of Today or status screen where I can put widgets or parts of applications on a single screen so my key information is glanceable without having to dive into applications. [...] Another area I would like to see addressed is notifications. Palm’s webOS and Google Android have the best implementation of notifications while the iPhone’s is pretty poor.

Setting aside that these are some of the most popular reasons people still Jailbreak their iPhones, Matt (and the other editors who took similar issue with iPhone functionality) will likely find many TiPb readers agreeing with him, yours truly included. Only built-in Apple apps can multitask, only your latest push message is shown on the Lock Screen (if you haven't already dismissed it), and that same one message/dismissal is the crux of the notification problem.

This brings everything sharply into focus. Apple prides itself on making software "5-years ahead of the competition" (see iPhone virtual keyboard). They would rather not provide a solution than provide one that they don't think answers the problem simply and elegantly (see cut, copy, and paste appearing only in iPhone 3.). They would rather provide a highly focused subset of functionality for the mainstream than to check off every power-user want (see everything all of us, er... want). Every version of the iPhone adds features that were considered "missing" to the previous version, either as technology and development resources allow, or Apple deems us sufficiently learned on what came before, and sufficiently motivated to buy what's next.

So, if RAM and CPU are at the level where multitasking will almost never crash the Phone app and Apple decides they have the UI for it they want, if Dashboard goes mobile but can remain uncluttered and Apple-esque in execution and DashCode joins the iPhone SDK, if... well, given the rapid rise of push notifications, there's no if -- we need better alert handling -- we just might get some or all of these things in iPhone 4.0.

Conclusion... Coming Soon

Week 6 is my turn. The iPhone 3GS comes home to TiPb and given everything every other editor has written about it, and everything I've written about the Nokia, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone, and Palm webOS, I have to re-examine and re-review the iPhone 3GS.

While that may not be conclusive, it will be TiPb's conclusion for this year.

While I look for iPhone stuff at CES, Dieter and the PreCentral.net crew went over to Palm's presentation, and got the goods on 3D gaming, video recording, Verizon, and more -- PreCentral.net's Here are the highlights:

• Palm CES live blog coverage
• webOS 1.4 coming in February
• Palm Pre Plus, Palm Pixi Plus exclusive to Verizon with tethering
• Flash 10.1 for webOS
• Video recording for webOS
• 3D gaming with native APIs(plug-in development kit).
• Open distribution for webOS apps
• AND... PreCentral webOS App Gallery goes LIVE! (Congrats guys!)

Check it out and let us know what you think. Big news for Palm? Too incremental? Competitive enough for 2010?

It’s time for some good old forum action. From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now.

• Our good friend from PreCentral.net, Dieter, needs your help. He's been stuck using the Palm Pre for so long he's forgotten all about his iPhone. Help answer some of his questions in this thread here!
• We've heard some rumblings of iPhone 3.1.3, so it made us wonder what Apple may have up their sleeves for us but an even bigger question is when will 3.1.3 actually be released?
• How many of you have left your iPhone to go to another platform just to eventually go running back to your lonely iPhone? Come on, we know you are out there... This is the thread for you.
• Jailbreaking is always a popular topic and lately it's been on fire. That being said, be sure to visit our iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock forum for some great conversation.

See you on the forums!

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Join Rene, Chad, and Precentral.net's Keith Newman for Apple gaming, profit share, OnLive, private API, Facebook fallout, Verizon attack ads and AT&T strikes back, gPhone cometh, Palm Pixi, and all the news, plus your questions answered! Listen in!

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You -- iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

Dieter and Derek of the PreCentral.net PalmCast invited me on to throw down on the topic of iPhone vs. Palm Pre, App Store vs. App Catalog, virtual vs. tiny tic-tac keyboard, and other assorted controversies. (No smartphones were hurt during the recording, however). Listen in!

You're the world champion, but some old-school commentators keep talking like maybe you're yesterday's news. They say you haven't faced any real challengers lately, that you're getting soft. They say that some new device is looking hungry.

But here's the thing: you know you've still got it. You know it and you want to prove it. You want to fight. You want to fight now!

But the challenger just ain't showing up. And worse, they ain't even saying when they will finally show up. Makes you so riled you just want to SCREAM!

That's the emotion TiPb's Rene tapped into to help out editor-in-chief Dieter, and our siblings over at PreCentral.net, video up a little demandment for Palm.

Release the release date. The Palm faithful want it to show what it can do, and dagnabit, we want to see what it can do. Bring it on!

Eye of the Jobs, baby!

I'd do the same thing I offered to do for a BlackBerry Storm: try using one. Believe me, for someone who's mellow has been 100% de-harshened by the iPhone, that's a contest ender.

Luckily for all of us, I'm not allowed to enter our sibling site, PreCentral.net's awesome new Palm Pre contest. But maybe YOU can!

Think you have what it takes to win a FREE Palm Pre? Time to put up or shut up! PreCentral.net is giving away FIVE Palm Pre Phones the day that the Palm Pre is released. In addition, we're sweetening the deal by making them into full-on Palm Pre Packs, including:

• A Palm Pre Smartphone on Sprint
• A $100 Amazon Gift Card to fill your Pre up with music
• A Touchstone Charging Station & Battery Cover
• Any case from the PreCentral.net Accessory Store
• A Set of Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth Stereo Headphones (A $99 value) to rock out with your Pre

If the qualifiers end up anywhere near as fantastic as last year's CrackBerry.com's Storm give-away, we should be in for some epic tattooed, mud wrasslin, paint-ball blasted, smartphone smashed, Palm Pre fun.

Kudos to PreCentral, and best of luck to all the contestants!

Our sibling site, PreCentral.net has just pulled a Palm, getting a great new look backed up by rock-solid Web-based underpinnings. Some would call it Karma, we call it the tireless work of our ole' editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, the awesome crew at PreCentral.net, and the backstage magicians at Smartphone Experts.

If you haven't already, check out PreCentral.net for all the latest news and views on Palm's upcoming new miracle device, the Palm Pre, inarguably the second most anticipated device launch (after our own next-gen iPhone, 'natch!) coming some mid-point this year.

Congrats again to the PC team! Great new look, same great content.

(And in keeping with the Palm Pre Pun Prevention Pledge, not a single groan was prepended to this post!)