Ah, the ol’ debate between Apple and Palm is moving onto a whole new level, according to Engadget Mobile, and iTunes is the new battleground. It’s been recently confirmed that the Palm Pre will link up to iTunes, but the way it does it is a bit… well, a bit cheeky. Y’see, when you plug the Palm Pre into your computer, the root USB node identifies it as a Palm Pre. All well and good. But it’s the Mass Storage interface where it gets interesting, because that bit identifies it as just another iPod.
And that means it can sync with iTunes, without any problems.
Yes, I will concede that is really very cheeky of Palm. It appears Apple are in a bit of a huff about it too, since they’ve just put a note on their support site, called “About unsupported third-party digital media players”, that says:
“Apple designs the hardware and software to provide seamless integration of the iPhone and iPod with iTunes, the iTunes Store, and tens of thousands of apps on the App Store. Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software. However, Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.”
Ooh-hoo-hooo, fightin’ talk! I’ve put that bit in bold, because it’s the important bit. The thing is, though, to block the Palm Pre from accessing iTunes, Apple would have to add in a bit of software to actively check the USB node of any device, and confirm it’s not a Pre, before aggressively blocking it. Technically you could argue that counts as “software changes over time”, but it’s stretching the point a bit.
Time will tell whether Apple and Palm do get into a punch-up over this, but with the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre soon to battle each other on store shelves, the battle over iTunes could get even nastier.
I predict it could get very messy, indeed…
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