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Kodak Sues Apple & RIM Over Preview In Cameras
Dave Knott writes "Kodak is suing Apple and Research In Motion over technology related to digital cameras in their iPhone and BlackBerry smart phones. The complaint specifically relates to photo preview functionality which Kodak claims infringes on their patents. The company is asking for unspecified monetary damages and a court order to end the disputed practices. Kodak has amassed more than 1,000 digital-imaging patents, and almost all of today's digital cameras rely on that technology. Kodak has licensed digital-imaging technology to about 30 companies, including mobile-device makers such as LG Electronics Inc., Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Sony Ericsson, all of which pay royalties to Kodak."
I'm guessing that's meant to be sarcasm - so come on, I'll bite, let's have specific examples and citations of where things were only done because of Apple? And you also miss that companies copy some things off of each other all the time - for every case where Apple did something first, there are other cases where Apple do something similar to what another company's already done.
I might as well say that Apple copied 3G off of other companies, or only started making phones because Nokia did before them. They stole the ability to access the Internet and run apps off of other companies too.
Applications for phones existed long before Apple, and the only "innovation" was locking it down so that you can't run an application unless you have Apple's permission, and download it only from their site.
I have no idea whether Google entered the market only because of Apple - that sounds rather like a Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Why hasn't Google also entered the mp3 market, if they do what Apple do? Either way, Google and Apple together are still a minority of the market.