Patents don't create success. You can patent a million things the public doesn't want and not make a penny. Patents can help protect work you do however (this is a concept known as "ownership"). Apple designed and created those things and should be entitled to the benefits. Let Palm invent something of its own.
Please name a car, TV, lawn mower, refrigerator, or cell phone where (1) you use every feature, and (2) it doesn't change over time. Or any other product for that matter that isn't agricultural. There's an affectation by many writers that this is all Really Important Stuff. It isn't. It's a product. Buy it or buy something else or buy nothing.
This is one of the side effects of the decrepit school system; the misunderstanding of plain English. Monopoly means "one supplier". AT&T;was once a monopoly, and so was Standard Oil. Apple isn't now and never will be a monopoly.
They are the best, however, and apparently the larger public is getting that now. Free markets means the customer can choose what he wants. Anyone who doesn't like Apple's success is free to build something better.
I once watched an NCAA title game where the announcers spent the entire time explaining how NC State could never beat Houston. NC State led the whole way and won.
Perhaps you didn't take not of the extraordinary increase in AT&T;data traffic since the iphone release nor their amazing jump in subscribers.
Perhaps you haven' noticed Apple's results?
"Hurt" Apple and AT&T;? You're kidding, right?
There were plenty of valid complaints in the past, most of them prior to Steve & Co's return. This time it's invalid. No one was in the dark in any way regarding what the iphone is and what it supports. At least some of what the iphone can do is possible because AT&T gave greater freedom to Apple in what features could be there than had ever been allowed by an operator before. That had a cost attached.
This is a lot of whining by people who have nothing better to do.
Locking the ipod and iphone are dumb. Hmmmm..., interesting. Given the dominance of the ipod and the fact that the iphone was one of the most successful consumer product launches ever, I can't wait until Apple does something smart.
DRM sells zero ipods. You were on much firmer ground when you said that all good things come to an end; of course they do. And concerning loose usage of the word "monopoly" you might look it up. It means exclusive ownership (no competitors). There are a seemingly infinite number of alternative ways to listen to music while on the go.
Jim
If Vista has caught up to os x, it's the version of os x that came out in April 2005. We'll see in January whether how the os x that will actually be competing with Vista compares.
Jim
It would just be great to have .mac free. It would be great to have everything free. Maybe Crest should give toothpaste for free. Do you give your time away for free? If so I would guess someone is supporting you.
.mac is like any product or service that is available. If you like it buy it. Otherwise forget it. It's not a philosophical issue.
Personally I sometimes prefer to pay for something rather than be constantly besieged by advertising, but that's just me.
Jim
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