Sign. Believe it or not, I used to love Apple a lot. If you know me in reality, I own a lot of Apple products. I have problems with stupid Apple fanboy, but I have no problem with some of the fantastic hardware from them. Like iMac or MBA. I never supported #boycottapple . I believe a customer should use whatever best to him, regardless of moral, or rather religious beliefs. I love my Android phone, not because I like Google. It’s because I truly believe my Galaxy Nexus is a better phone than iPhone 4s.

But now, Apple is beginning to look ugly to me. There’s a fine line between protecting your innovation and silly, ridiculous litigation. It’s so sad that Apple, such a once great company, is going from one to the other.

So why?


I don’t believe the words like “they can’t innovate any more”, “they don’t have Steve Jobs any more so they suck now”. All of them make no sense. I know some great people working in Apple, and there are many more great people I don’t know working there. They are not dumber than anyone in Android team. They are smart, and iOS is a great OS with great foundation. Don’t let your fanboyism to fool you. Apple is still a fast moving company with tons of innovations.

Let’s take a look at the laptop market first. Apple’s product blow them out of water. Sure, everyone has his budget, and I’m not saying Thinkpad or Zenbook Prime is not good. They are very good. While if you just look at the high-end model, say, take a look at new macbook pro with retina display. There is no comparison. It’s not even close. And if you check the ultrabook market out, everyone loves MBA. I’m talking about normal consumers. Everyone I talked to using MBA loves it.

It’s a one-man competition.

There is no doubt that Apple is leading the whole laptop market. Look at all the designs of recent ultrabook or whatever laptop, except for Lenovo’s Thinkpad. Everyone kind of borrows idea from Apple. Some of them are even blatant copy(hey, I’m looking at you, HP and ASUS). If you honestly believe Galaxy Tab looks “like” iPad, then, it sure looks like those laptops are “more like” Macbook.

But hey, why there is no litigation there? Why Apple doesn’t sue them? Why Apple only sues the most successful Android phone company?

Maybe, I’m saying maybe, because Apple doesn’t care those laptop companies. There is no threat, they can’t make stuff nearly as good as Apple’s product. Yeah, they are cheaper, sure. But they are definitely not nicer.

But when it comes to Android, Apple is scared. I can feel the fear. They are not worried. They are scared.

When the early time Android got released, a lot of people think it couldn’t compete with iPhone. I still remember the old time when all the reviewers and writers laughing at it, and mocking on it. Just like when Google+ was released(Cough, this is a ghost town, cough). iPhone, at that time, is already a nice phone. Slick, beautiful, useful, and powerful. Android 2.1 is ugly. Android 2.2 is ugly, Android 2.3 is better, but still, uhhhh, ugly, and relatively laggy. The market share of Android was rising as a rocket, but still, a lot of people think it due to being cheap and firmly believe iOS wins hands down eventually. Frankly speaking, I was pretty disappointed when 2.3 was released. Geeks may not care about aesthetic feeling and slick, unified experience. Most consumers do. People are saying that once Apple make the old model cheap enough, most people will get back to Apple’s garden.

Everything changes with ICS. I can’t believe how amazing the people in Android team are. They never stop working, fixing bug, improving functionality, refining outlook, and of course, doing innovation. Suddenly, Android becomes sexy, slick, much more user-friendly, and still keeps all the super powerful features. It’s on par with, in terms of aesthetic feeling and overall experience, iOS, and also carries a lot more features, just as always. With Android 4.0, and potentially 4.1, for normal consumers, they finally could say, hey man, this phone is gorgeous, I want it even though it’s 500/600/700 bucks.

It’s like to put a knife to Apple’s throat. It’s probably the first time when Apple need to face with a competitor who does a excellent job as them, and potentially better. Much better, if you count in the integration of Google’s service. When they feel like it’s really hard to keep up with Android’s pace, and also really hard to gain significantly more market share, they chooses litigation. It’s a sad, but natural move, for them. They want more sales. They want more market. They want more money. There is no better way than banning Android phone sales.

Someone may argue, nah, Apple doesn’t care about market share. Apple only cares about profit. I call bullshit on this. Of course Apple cares about market. Where do you think the profit comes from? Every single time when a consumer chooses iPhone over Android, Apple wins. It’s just simple like that.

So yes, feel free to call me Android fanboy, but in my mind, Apple is scared, for the first time in recent 5-6 years. It’s the only reasonable way to explain whole situation between Apple, and Android companies, for now.