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Apple Asked Google Not to Use Multi-Touch in Android?

VentureBeat claims that Apple specifically asked Google not to use Multi-Touch in their Android platform and Google agreed. The report comes from an unidentified member of the Android team:

Apple, which of course makes the signature multi-touch mobile device, the iPhone, apparently asked Google not to implement it, and Google agreed, an Android team member tells us.

According to the report, Google wanted to avoid risking its relationship with Apple. The same source claims that Apple's relationships with Palm have significantly soured surrounding the recent public statements that Apple would aggressively protect the iPhone's intellectual property. Palm's new Pre Phone is the first mobile phone to offer multi-touch gestures similar to Apple's iPhone.

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39 months ago
Wow.. just wow. I'd be amazed to think that Google would bow down to Apple.

That said i guess the relationship means more then the product?
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39 months ago
That is very interesting. Google and Apple must be much closer than I thought.
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39 months ago
Well Steve did say when they first introduced it: "And boy have we patented it!"

Ams.
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39 months ago
There must be so much more to this.

Super big company 1: hey don't do that, please.
Super big company 2: lol k
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39 months ago
Well considering the CEO of Google is on Apples Board of Directors this isn't suprising

http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bod.html
(Dr. Eric Schmidt)

It still takes less than 3 minuets to hack the android phone and give it multitouch anyway.
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39 months ago
I cannot see how people (us customers) could benefit from such an agreement.

Inter-corporate politics at it's finest. You laugh until you cry, then you watch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/ .
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39 months ago

Super big company 1: hey don't do that, please.
Super big company 2: lol k


Is actually a pretty simple way of putting it, You could just imagine steve jobs on the phone with google CEO saying 'Sup man, wanna drop the multi touchz0rs pl0x?' - Google CEO 'Sure thing steve, i'll get my cat- i mean guys onto it ASAP.' ...'and there's just one last thing.'
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39 months ago

I cannot see how people (us customers) could benefit from such an agreement.


Yeah, that's why companies do stuff. To help consumers! It's not at all to make money, right?

I do find it rather hard to believe that Apple would simply "ask" Google not to use multitouch; even harder that Google would simply say okay. Apple would have to have something over Google, or offer them something. That or, just maybe, this report from an anonymous source is complete BS.
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39 months ago
Or the old cost vs payout, risk vs reward games. They could have used multi-touch but it would have cost them maybe a patent lawsuit. The also may already be getting $$ from Apple for the iPhone which we have seen is selling like no tomorrow. So that could be another potential financial loss. With the economy and Google's $$ coming mostly from ads, any money in is something one might not want to give up. Still sucks though.
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39 months ago
This shows how Apple and the ridiculous intellectual property rights system is stiffling competition and hurting consumers.
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