Do Patents Stop Companies From Creating 'Perfect' Products?

Chris M writes "In a recent CNET article, the mobile phone editor writes about what he thinks would make a perfect phone. Unfortunately, as someone in the comments section points out, much of the technology that is used in this concept phone belongs to separate companies. 'I'm sorry to be the Devil's Advocate here, but most of those feautres are patented to separate companies. It would require almost all the major manufacturers [working together] to do this, which is highly unlikely.' Do you think patents are stopping companies from creating 'perfect' devices, or are there other factors at work?"

Comments

The point of OSS ?

[Yvanhoe]

I think this was one of the main points of Richard Stallman when he wrote the GPL. That copyrights and closed licensing prevent innovation. I know that the problem with hardware is quite different but I think the same rationale applies.