OEMs likely to seek asylum at Microsoft as Android future falls in the mist

Apple’s win over Samsung is touted by many to be an indirect attack on a much bigger fish, Google. The patent infringements were mostly related to the software such as bounce-back list navigation feature. But some gurus say that battle with Google is very unlikely due to a number of players involved.

Apple won approximately $1.05 Billion in damages from Samsung at the US district court in San Jose, California. In addition, there is a ban on eight Samsung products that wilfully infringed Apple patents. The major patent violated was the trade dress.

However, there are software features that also have been breached in the competition like the bounce-back feature. However, that is not entirely a Samsung-specific attribute. Therefore, it can be safely said that a silent war brewing between Apple and Google. But Google is a much bigger animal to fight with than Samsung.

Moreover, Android is not solely a Google property. OEMs that manufacture Android-based smartphones and tablets make tweaks to the software in the shape of GUIs like TouchWiz from Samsung and Sense from HTC. Therefore, Apple will have to take on every manufacturer separately.

There are chances that the upcoming smartphones from the likes of Samsung, Motorola, LG, HTC and ZTE will have work around the Apple patented features.

“New Android versions will undoubtedly work around (Apple) patents, but those workarounds will come with a noticeable degradation of the user experience, making Android devices less fun and less intuitive to use,” said Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst and founder of Foss Patents.

It probably will take months or years for Apple to subdue all the players on Android front. However, there are other things that might also give the Cupertino-based company tough time.

There is Research in Motion, RIM, who make BlackBerry smartphones and they also have a new operating system coming up shortly. Then there is Microsoft with its mobile OS called Windows Phone. The newest version, Windows Phone 8 is coming with a band this Fall and there a strong probability that the aforementioned OEMs might seek safe haven at Microsoft headquarters.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Aug 28 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.