Idle Thoughts

The ongoing IP infringement battle between Apple and Samsung in the multiple courts across the world has generated a lot of discussion on Patents and their relevance to innovation. The most prevalent view being that Apple is using patent laws to curb competition and there by innovation. For E.g. see the ZDNET article: Apple’s worldwide war on Samsung and Android . The article states that it is a delusion to see any connection between ‘real’ Intellectual Property (IP) and Patent wars. The patent wars are seen as attempts to exhort cash from people who create real products. The result, the article concludes, is that innovation in any technology will come to an end. There is an apparent irony here that the patent laws were intended to help innovation by protecting those who innovated against those who just copy. It comes from not differentiating innovation from consumer choice. Consumer choice is also created by companies who create look alikes at a lower cost. Consumer choice ...

Why is Google buying Motorola Mobility? Interesting question! A more relevant question – what will Google do with Motorola once they buy it? Given below are some of Google’s options. The assumption is that Google is most interested in Motorola’s patents and least interested in their Cable business. This assumption eliminated some of the combinations from the options. Option 1: Keep the patents, keep the operations – phone as well as cable. This option offers multiple advantages for Google: it will help Google get the protection of the patents, Google can attempt to achieve the same advantage that Apple has achieved through tight integration of the phone hardware and software. This option might help Google in their TV battle through Motorola’s existing installed base and partnerships. But there are many questions here. Is Google interested in the tightly integrated model? In fact, Google’s press statement says that it will keep the Moto phone division at an arm’s length f...

I picked up this book from one of the bookshops in my office campus during an after-lunch-idle-browsing-session. The cover promised to provide 'business lessons from Steve Jobs, the man who saved Apple'. It was curious to see that he was not described as the man who created Apple, but as the man who saved Apple. I guess it is more heroic to 'save' a company than just grow it from nothing. In that sense, it worked out well for Steve that he was kicked out of Apple and that Apple got itself rotted. I had no expectation from the book and the book met it admirably. It is an easy read, especially if you are interested in Apple and Steve Jobs. It talks about how Steve Jobs rebuilt Apple from the ruins. The first thing that he did was to clean up the product-line, especially narrowing down the number of models and configurations. While the rest of the PC industry was all about providing as much choice to the customer, he saw that it was Apple's opportunity to differentiate...