End Game

I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this. I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. — Steve Jobs.

Peace not war — there's an app for that...

One thing I noted while reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs was the amount of anger residing in Apple's CEO.  It's no wonder he developed cancer.  You can't have that much vitriol and rage swarming about without throwing a big cluster of cells out of balance.  And this from a man who considered himself a follower of Zen. Apparently, no one told Steve the Zen monks all signed a treaty banning thermonuclear warheads a few years ago.

Meanwhile, the war between Apple and Google rages on. Today in Germany, Motorola (now owned by Google) won an injunction against the iPhone and iPad.  Apple is appealing a denied injunction against the Samsung Galaxy in the US.  Samsung uses the Android OS and for some reason Apple prefers to fire the legal cannons at them instead of taking on Google directly.

When the lawsuits first began, I understood it.  Apple was drawing a line in the sand, something they didn't do years ago until it was too late with Microsoft and Windows.  They were letting every tech company know they would not stand for outright pirating of their ideas and work.  "If you're going to try it, then lawyer up.  We have the money, we have the resources.  Be very sure you want to go down this road with us."

Fair enough.  But, what if you come up against another company like Google and/or Samsung who have the funds and lawyers to keep this battle going indefinitely?  Then it becomes a ridiculous war of attrition.  And how's it going to end?  Ten year from now, there will be settlements, agreements, payments and very rich lawyers.  Everyone will scratch their heads and try to remember how things got this far along in the first place.

I have no doubts Google stole the look and feel of iOS and the iPhone.  They may have been working on a mobile OS before Apple, but there is little doubt Eric Schmidt got a gander at the iPhone and iOS at an Apple board meeting and rushed back to the Google headquarters with a stop the presses order.  "We got it all wrong, boys.  Think scrolling.  Think pinching.  Think fart apps!"

I used to pull brawling kids apart in the schoolyard and there would always be one who'd point and say, "He started it!  To which I'd respond, "Well, you end it."  To Tim Cook and Apple I say, end it. Steve Jobs is gone now.  This was his rage, his thermonuclear war.  Find an acceptable middle ground, sign the documents and move on.  It is inevitable other companies will copy what you are doing,  That is the downside of being an innovator.  You come up with it, others see how genius it is and they steal it.

Keep the legal team on high alert.  Win the battles you can.  But, when it gets out of hand, like it is now, it's time for cooler heads to prevail.  Maintain the focus on innovation, progression and making sure your products remain the very best they can be.

Success will triumph.

UPDATE: Apparently the make peace/money not war sentiment is growing...