14 DAY TRIAL // A lawsuit filed by a group of individuals and businesses who bought iPods over the span of three years is seeking roughly $350 million (€282 million) in damages from Apple for “unfairly blocking competing device makers,” Reuters reports.
Evidence put forth by the plaintiffs include corporate emails and a videotaped deposition given by Steve Jobs, then the company’s CEO, shortly before he passed away in 2011.
Apple clinging to the iPod
Defending Apple, attorney William Isaacson said that the Cupertino giant was concerned that music taken off the iPod and copied onto computers would upset the record companies and implicitly impact its iTunes and iPod business.
Bonny Sweeney, the plaintiffs’ attorney, showed emails signed by Apple executives, including Steve Jobs, where they discussed the issue at heart. Real Networks had developed a song manager that rivaled iTunes in a way that it could put playable music on iPods.
“There was a concern by Apple that this would eat into their market share,” Sweeney said.
Apple subsequently updated the iPod to bar RealPlayer from working with the portable music players.
This discouraged iPod owners from buying a competing device, the plaintiffs noted. However, Apple’s attorney explained that the company merely wanted to protect iPods from security threats and other damage that could potentially arise from software created by Real Networks. Apple has long been known to be fanatic about equipping its hardware with software designed in-house.
Isaacson argued that Real Networks, and implicitly their RealPlayer application, “posed a danger to the consumer experience and to the quality of the product.”
A relentless Steve Jobs
Even in his final days, Jobs was 100% operational when it came to defending Apple, its intellectual property, or even potential mistakes that he wouldn’t admit.
Asked whether or not he was familiar with Real Networks, the Apple CEO could be heard (and seen) in his video deposition replying, “Do they still exist?” This, after the plaintiffs presented an email exchange between Jobs and Marketing Chief Philip Schiller, where Jobs proposed that Apple publish a press release staining Real Networks.
“How's this?” Jobs wrote. “‘We are stunned that Real is adopting the tactics and ethics of a hacker and breaking into the iPod’.” Schiller reportedly responded, “I like likening them to hackers.”
Typical Apple behavior, no doubt. But still an era that many die hard Apple fans look back upon with great admiration. With Tim Cook running the show, these days Apple is a lot more diplomatic when it comes to disputes with rivaling tech companies.
