An Open Letter to Apple/Microsoft

Dear Apple/Microsoft Corporation,

We are aware that a few weeks ago, you bought up a patent portfolio, that, among other things - seems to be aimed squarely at the attempt to try to remove the droid operating system from "free, and open". Didn't you tell me, at a trade conference - that you were an operating system company? To all of those people at Microsoft - do you not have a stone carving on your floor that says " A PC IN EVERY HOME AND OFFICE". Why then are you trying to attack the opening , of a notoriously closed platform such as the US Cellphone?

To you both, I'd like for you to imagine that we're all at the senior prom and we've all chosen our dance partners. You may be unhappy with your choice, but do you really want to drop your partner off right in the middle of the prom - and keep others from joining the dance? Yes, Apple, I am aware that you are trying to tether everything to iTunes. And you want everyone to be in your "cloud". And yes, Microsoft, I am aware that the Windows OS for Phones is really pretty cool, and that you want to sell Microsoft Office to people in Antartica.

But surely you've realized, by now - that your profit and performance over the past three decades has almost squarely derived from the fact that we, as Americans, do not have to develop something on five different platforms every time we launch a product. Are not the Japanese an intelligent race? Do you not learn, from their example - of several different operating systems all across their continent in the late to mid eighties - that caused their entire software industry to lag behind? In America, we grew strong by being first to market with innovative software that allowed us to license good , usable technology. We became the pre eminent software manufacturer of the world.

So why are you trying to pressure the US Cell Phone market into shutting down the possibility that a unified platform could exist? Even after your ridiculous patent moves (such as attempting to patent scrolling or the mouse click) - Android has, this past quarter - added 640,000 users to its platform. Android now has the first and only multi processor cellphone platform - and a longer battery life, and a huge array of apps. Developers like it better than the iPhone, or the Microsoft Phone Operating System.

And let's face it, it's cool. You're a software company. You license operating systems to bigger devices. You're not a cell phone company. We will always need a workstation of some kind, no matter how small our devices get. The Droid OS revolution happened without you. Don't try to shut it down just because you couldn't see the writing on the wall. Tethering isn't good for the net. Free, open and stable. Are.

Thank you.

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