Palm responds to iTunes / Pre statement, defiant and unfazed
By Ross Miller 
posted June 17th 2009 5:11PM
posted June 17th 2009 5:11PM
posted June 17th 2009 5:11PM
HP Pre 3
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
lol! I'm lovin' palm right now.
@ladycatherine
Your assesment of the Blackberry out selling the iPhone is partially true, care to know why they are out selling the iPhone? It is because they are practically giving away the damn phones. Case in point, company my wife and I work for were going to get iPhones, someone had a beautiful proposal showing all the benefits over the Blackberry and we were on our way to getting them. Then IT got a quote for Blackberry phones for $30.00 for each phone. Given the way the market is today, that is the way the company went. So yes they are selling more, but are not making a darn profit. RIM is scared and it shows. Some of us bought iPhones ourselves any ways despite the IT department and our batteries last longer, we can do more with the extra apps and we have less dropped calls. The ones that decided to get the Blackberry's are envious.
Pre + iTunes = Adam and Eve.
Apple is the DEVIL!
or was Apple the snake?
Why would anyone want to willingly use iTunes anyways...such a horrible program.
iTunes is horrible!? Windowz "WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER RLZ!" nerd detected...
The Pre shows up in iTunes as an "iPod." This is clearly illegal. You can't have your product masquerade as something else.
I have to agree with your statement. Claiming a product that is compatible and falsely identifying it as a product that has no relevance to Palm is irresponsible and unethical. This is not a good time for Palm to make any mistakes and yet they did.
RIP Palm.
@ Neal, how exactly is it illegal?
First, Palm doesn't identify the Pre as an iPod, iTunes does. So, if anyone is misidentifying it is Apple.
Second, ignoring that, the only colorable argument I can come up with for any law breaking by Palm is either false advertising or trademark infringement. However, it can't be false advertising, because this isn't an advertisement, it is just how it is displayed during use. Moreover, the "false misidentification" occurs after the Pre is already sold (presumably quite clearly as a "Palm Pre" not an iPod), so advertising (which occurs before a sale) has nothing to do with it. It also can't be trademark infringement, because the use of another's mark has to occur either (1) at the point of advertisement of a product, (2) on the packaging of the product, or on the product itself, and/or (3) at the point of sale of the infringing product (since the whole point of trademark infringement is to protect consumers from accidently buying a product that they think is made by someone else). Again, this supposed infringement occurs *after* a sale is made. Moreover, it is unlikely that the average consumer is likely to be confused when iTunes calls the Pre an iPod that the Pre is actually made by Apple (and a "liklihood of confusion" is also required for trademark infringement).
Just because you don't like it doesn't make it illegal.
o shucks Apple, whats the big deal? Pre is just trying to give their customers some options they would want. Kudos to any company that gives their customers some consideration! They could embrace the idea and offer some pre users tunes and apps, amd make a buck off it. There are apps that allow ipods to be used to sync in WMP or windows explorer(eg. Xplay), I cant recall MS soiling itself over that.... ah well. Im sure there are some people at Apple (and Apple fans) that like the idea.
A7
I have yet to see an official statement from Apple declaring that they are blocking the Pre from iTunes.
Any one who says this is what Apple will do needs to present proof. All I've seen from Apple's statement is:
1) Apple does not support issues with 3rd party MP3 players:
~ This does not mean Apple is not allowing 3rd party players, only that they do not support them.
~ Apple only makes iTunes and iPods, so they have no obligation to support devices not built by them.
2) It is not Apple's responsibility to ensure that future versions of iTunes not break support 3rd party players:
~ It is up to the 3rd party developers to make sure their devices remain compatible with iTunes.
~ Apple has kept iTunes open to several 3rd party players: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2172
Palm recognizes the inherent benefits of having the Pre connect to iTunes. Likewise, Apple benefits by having more iTunes customers. There's no reason why Apple would not want this.
.
why anyone would use iTunes in the first place is beyond my understanding...
I have a Nokia, I fire up BT, I sync up my Music Folder, and that's it. No memory-hogging app, no picky connection drivers, no bloody iTunes ads...
For what it's worth, Sailing Media Sync is free and effortlessly syncs almost any device you want with your iTunes library. Works a treat with the HTC Magic for instance. So if Apple pulls the plug on Pre syncing, this would be a decent option.
http://www.salling.com/
+1 on the sailing software. The saling clicker software also allows you to control your computer. Pretty cool stuff, although im not sure it has been ported to pre yet.
"the company said disabling the sync "will be a direct blow to their users who will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience" and that "there are other third-party applications we could consider." In other word, it'd be Apple's loss."
In other words Palm is scared shitless that Apple will do this.
You obviously fail at reading comprehension. It means Palm is looking at Apple and saying "Do it and see what happens". In other words, if Apple does decide to be aggressive about this and block the Pre from syncing with itunes, Apple could and most likely see a large exodus of users moving away from their iTunes store.
Personally, for my media player I use Winamp. Only time i use or touch iTunes is for purchasing music and updating my iTouch or iPod 80GB. If Apple does block my Pre from syncing and allowing me to put MY music on my phone, then you can bet i will go somewhere else. I might even do that now considering the Zune store (or whatever it's called) is 15 bucks a month for UNLIMITED downloads. Download a full album and its already a better price than iTunes Plus.
In the end, like the other article (the one referencing Apple's response) said, it would take Apple to be aggressive and actually program something in a USB node to block the Pre. If they do that, then it could spell legal problems for Apple.
@ Venomizer
Actually it is you who fails at reading comprehension.
1) It is Palm who have no music store of their own that recognize the huge inherent benefits of having the Pre connecting to iTunes so they come scratching at Apple's door. Palm does not have a right to iTunes, Apple is granting the privilege.
2) Apple's statement never says they are blocking the Pre out of iTunes. All their statement says is it's not Apple's responsibility to help users of 3rd party music players connect to iTunes. (That's the responsibility of the 3rd party music player manufacturers).
3) If Apple does decide to block sync with the Pre that still does not prevent music purchased in iTunes from being loaded in the Pre. You'd just have to do it manually or with the help of another app. Only a very small fraction of Pre owners would be affected anyway. No one would notice, there would be no "mass exodus away from iTunes."
4) Apple owns iTunes, not the other music stores nor the entire music market. 3rd party players do not have an inherent right to connect to iTunes. That means zero legal trouble for Apple.
Weak sauce Palm. If you really want to brag about "there are other third-party applications we could consider," then why do you do the iTunes sync in the first place? Partner up with SongBird for God's sake or make your own software. Simply weak sauce. Palm doesn't even officially list iTunes syncing as a feature for the Pre, now they're crying foul?
As ofor people whining about iTunes, for God's sake, you can drag-n-drop music to the Pre. How can it be easier than that?
Apple should just stop giving Palm free publicity. Every time they talk about the pre or other computers even not directly, it's free publicity. Just ignore them and do you own thing.
Does Coke every put out statements commenting on Pepsi? It's idiotic and bad PR 101.
Im guessing apples main concern isn't that the pre functions with iTunes, rather that if a future update does break the integration, Pre customers will be calling Apple for support because iTunes is suddenly not working for a couple million people. That's a huge cost burden on Apple, even to field all those calls just to tell them to call palm or sprint. It still costs money. A lot of it.
@ ticooper
Yes, exactly! Finally someone with good reading, comprehension skills and common sense.
who gives a s...
that palm will be around for 6 months at most.
so big woop.