Do you recall when Steve Jobs said to the competitors; "we welcome the competition, but don't compete with us using our technology, develop your own," or at least it was something to that effect and it appeared in the Wall Street Journal, after Maria Barteromo on CNBC had interviewed him. Steve Jobs was defending a patent lawsuit that he filed against a competitor that was using a touch screen technology, and making a knockoff product to compete with their latest personal tech device.
Okay so, let's fast-forward to today and see where we are at now. In the Wall Street Journal there was an interesting article on March 7, 2012 by Ian Sherr entitled; "Apple Weighs Settling Patent Cases" stating; "In exchange for ending litigation, Apple has offered licensing deals to mobile competitors." This might be extremely good for Apple in the end as it then works on making the next evolution of its products.
Recently, also there was a rather interesting issue where Apple didn't have the trademark for iPad in China, and a Chinese knock-off was using it, 10s of thousands of iPads were confiscated, but Apple can out innovate everyone so, it doesn't need to put out an iPad III as it can merely call it something else such an:
iBad
iRad
iGlad
The reality is it doesn't matter what Apple calls it, it's still an Apple product, and they have brand loyalty near and far. Whatever they produce at that $499 price point that they are talking about, people will buy, and they were probably by millions of them. In fact one analyst recently stated that he believed that Apple would sell for 3 million iPad IIIs (or whatever they call them), and still sell 25 million iPad IIs in 2012.
Yes, those estimates seem legitimate to me based on previous sales, and the acceleration of iPads sales right now. Still, the reality is Apple doesn't need to worry about people copying its old stuff, all it has to do is slow them down long enough to get a return on investment, and keep coming out with new products that people will love, something they are very good at. And we all know whatever products they do come out with, people will stand in line the night before waiting to get one and then the hordes of others will follow.
Apple doesn't need the patent court to stay on top. It only needs a little breathing room, and that's something that we as Americans should make sure they get because it means continued investment in innovation and technology in this great country of ours. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
UPDATE: As of March 8, 2012 - Apple launched its third version of the iPad and has called it "The New iPad" which is fairly smart considering that that's what everyone else has been calling it all along in the media and personal tech blogs.
Recommended reading:
1. WSJ article; "Apple Tries to Keep Edge" by Jessica E. Vascellaro, March 8, 2012.
2. WSJ article; "Apple iPads Its Product Portfolio" by Rolfe Winkler, 3-8-2012.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Innovation in America. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
No comments:
Post a Comment