Yes, and the reason comes out. One of the largest complaints with the G1, first phone based on Google’s Android platform, is that it doesn’t have multi-touch and Android is very multi-touch capable. Well, now there is a reason for the exclusion of the technology and simply put, Apple asked them to. Something many don’t realize is that Apple and Google are quite intertwined, google tailors a lot of its products to the Apple iPhone and Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, is on Apple’s board of directors. As well, the Android team was quite happy to learn of the exclusion, via the legal battle that would more than likely ensue. Right, so Apple obviously has a myriad of patents under its belt, but so does Google, and so does Palm. Palm??? yeah, Palm, they are in it pretty deep with Apple right now over the whole multi-touch ordeal and their new phone. After a little searching and reading, Apples patents really only seem to apply to one of the specific motions involved in the multi-touch interface. I’m sure at some point there will be an agreement, even more so because Intel is planning to use the Android platform in its upcoming netbook, and multi-touch will be a large part of the package, but i guess we’ll wait and see. Read More...
