Windows 7 - Regulators "slow to catch up" to Microsoft patent bullying.

JMH · 11-12-2011

Quote:

Google and at least one of its Android partners—Barnes and Noble—have been agitating for a government antitrust investigation of Microsoft's patent licensing practices. Last month, Barnes and Noble submitted a formal request for the Department of Justice to launch a probe.

According to Barnes and Noble, Microsoft claims to have over 60,000 patents. Fewer than 20,000 of those were granted by the patent office; Microsoft presumably purchased the other 40,000 from other firms. The result is one of the world's largest "patent thickets." Microsoft has so many patents that it's difficult to build a software product as complex as a mobile operating system without infringing dozens, maybe even hundreds, of them.

And Microsoft is taking full advantage of that fact, approaching each Android-based phone manufacturer in turn and demanding stiff licensing fees—fees that are allegedly at least as high as the fees Microsoft charges for its own Windows Phone 7 operating system. Microsoft has also been cagey about identifying the specific patents allegedly infringed by Android vendors. Some observers (including me) have characterized the process as a shakedown.

Expert: Regulators "slow to catch up" to Microsoft patent bullying

lehnerus2000 · 11-13-2011

"Microsoft has so many patents that it's difficult to build a software product as complex as a mobile operating system without infringing dozens, maybe even hundreds, of them."

Isn't that the whole point of owning patents?

It seems like the software patent system is totally broken in the US.

nitroman84 · 11-13-2011

It seems that most everything is broken in the US and I think patents are the least of our worries. On a side note, Android is light years ahead of anything Microsoft has planned for the mobile market. They have wasted too much time and are just too late to compete at this time.

jeniuskid · 11-15-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by nitroman84

It seems that most everything is broken in the US and I think patents are the least of our worries. On a side note, Android is light years ahead of anything Microsoft has planned for the mobile market. They have wasted too much time and are just too late to compete at this time.

I think microsoft has already caught up to and exceeded android in terms of OS integration, hardware acceleration and overall smoothness of the UX in the mobile market.

the proof of this is a comparison between the HTC incredible S and the Samsung focus. From gsmarena.com, you'll find that their specs are almost identical, with the incredible having a slightly better gpu and more ram than the Focus. If you do a side by side comparison of app launching, pinch to zoom in pictures, pinch to zoom internet browsing, transitions between UI elements (aka going from start screen into app list and other such transitions), you'll find the Focus beats the Incredible S.

supposing that android is light years ahead of microsoft's windows phone, should it not be faster, smoother, than it? seeing as the incredible S was released in February 2011 while the focus was released in November 2010, the android phone should be much better shouldn't it? as i've said in the previous paragraph, there are several key elements where android, in fact, fails in comparison to wp7.

i have first hand experience with a comparison like this because my close friend has the incredible S and i have the Focus.

the only area that android is beating windows phone is in the number of apps in the marketplace.

I'm not speaking as a fan boy, im speaking realistically. I can honestly say that except for opening poorly made apps, everything on my phone runs smoothly without even the slightest STUTTER in animation, even in my contact list which holds over 1000 contacts. Can you HONESTLY say android does that on a device with equivalent hardware?

To say that android is light years ahead of Microsoft in the mobile market is to stretch the truth to its breaking point.