HTC Sends Cease & Desist To Developer Who Made Similar Android Widgets

from the can't-compete? dept

Tue, Dec 22nd 2009 8:38am — Mike Masnick

Tim K alerts us to the news that phone maker HTC has sent a cease & desist nastygram to the developers of an Android widget that certainly had a similar look and feel to HTC's own Sense UI. Except, many people claim that this newer widget, from LevelUp Studios, was actually better. LevelUp apparently has no interest in fighting this, and are ditching the widget, but it seems that they could have a decent argument here. The bigger question, though, is why HTC is bothering? I'm actually a big HTC fan. My last two mobile phones have both been from HTC, and I had been expecting my next one to be from HTC as well. But this sort of bullying for no good reason makes me wonder why I'd want to support a company like that. Honestly, what was HTC "losing" by letting this widget be created? This seems like bullying just for the sake of bullying.

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Filed Under: android, cease & desist, mobile apps, widgets
Companies: htc

23 Comments

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aguywhoneedstenbucks (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 8:24am

Sense UI
It's because they believe people are buying it for their Sense UI. I have an HTC Hero, and while I love it I don't like any of the HTC widgets. They seem sluggish compared to the rest of the operation of the phone and they tend to get in the way.

It's all about ego.
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David (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 8:42am

I don't get it
I have an HTC phone, as well (the G1), it is actually my 3rd (all t-mobile branded, the MDA, the Dash), and I agree that their software is not what has me buy the phone.

I don't like the fact that they are getting nasty about it. For gosh sake! Can't you let people have a choice?
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The Anti-Mike, 22 Dec 2009 @ 8:45am

reverse it
what was HTC "losing" by letting this widget be created?

What was HTC gaining? Not very much, they are losing control over their product, they are losing a brand product that differentiates them from the other players, etc. In a more and more crowded smart phone market, HTC has continued to differentiate themselves by not having products that are just "me too". I think they are doing the right thing by protecting the parts of the market that make the HTC experience unique to HTC products.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 8:57am

Re: reverse it
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Whew, thanx I needed a good laugh.

Ever head of the PDA? Why'd they die out? Maybe nobody cared for them because they were... how'd you put it? "doing the right thing by protecting the parts of the market that make the ... experience unique to (their) products." Yep, they protected their unique user experienceness right out of the marketplace. Good job there. *Pat on the back*

"History repeats itself. Those who fail to learn from the failures of others are doomed to repeat them."
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robin, 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:19am

Re: reverse it
"...they are losing control over their product..."

the plaint and world-view of the status quo defender. sadly for the anti-mikes' of the world, the future is not about control, it's about how to make money when you've lost control; to technology and irritable consumers:

http://www.mediafuturist.com/the-end-of-control-essays.html

"What was HTC gaining?"

they were gaining: a larger network surrounding their products and company, energized developers, attentive purchasers, engagement with with fans.

PFFT, gone.
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AdamR (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:31am

"What was HTC gaining? Not very much, they are losing control over their product, they are losing a brand product that differentiates them from the other players, etc. In a more and more crowded smart phone market, HTC has continued to differentiate themselves by not having products that are just "me too". I think they are doing the right thing by protecting the parts of the market that make the HTC experience unique to HTC products"

They lost control of their product when they got conned by Verizon and let them market The HTC Eris as a Droid. Please explain how they gain from that?
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The Anti-Mike, 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:32am

Re: Re: reverse it
They are still gaining it from the hundreds and possibly thousands of developers who are actually making new stuff and supporting the android OS and HTC phones (full disclosure, I have an HTC phone which I enjoy very much).

It isn't about stopping development, it's just keeping control of the key apps that make the phone unique to other offerings.
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CommonSense (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:47am

Re: reverse it
They were gaining a developer base for their phones, which means more apps, which means more customers. They were gaining a product that was better than their own, which gives them a sense of what the market is looking for so they can improve their own offering, or a replacement for their own app so they can focus on developing better core tools. They were gaining customers of the technically savvy type who are easily frustrated by second rate apps, and get very upset when some company tells them they can't do something that they should be able to do, just for the sake of maintaining their own control over it.

In other words, they were gaining everything they should have wanted to gain.

What were they losing by letting this widget on their phones? A little market share in the app world maybe, which would likely have been more than made up for by the gained customers in the phone market when they realized that HTC phones weren't afraid to offer the best apps out there... Smooth move HTC, if it weren't for Google, you'd probably be looking at a very dim future.
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milrtime83 (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:48am

They aren't "ditching" the widget.
The developer has changed the look of the widgets and they are back in the market.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:50am

Re:
The droid name makes it more attractive. I want an Android Phone and the more obvious that is the better. The Verizon network wins in this area so an iPhone is right out.

I was considering the ERIS but if HTC is doing to stay this stupid I will let my money go elsewhere. The programmer should just alter the output enough so it doesn't look as much like the HTC crapware.
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The Anti-Mike, 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:56am

Re: They aren't "ditching" the widget.
Which is probably the best solution for everyone.

See, solutions aren't hard to find.
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AdamR (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:59am

They are still gaining it from the hundreds and possibly thousands of developers who are actually making new stuff and supporting the android OS and HTC phones (full disclosure, I have an HTC phone which I enjoy very much).

It isn't about stopping development, it's just keeping control of the key apps that make the phone unique to other offerings.

You do realize all Beautiful Widgets was? It was a clock app and also showed weather info with the clock? If you hold that as a key app then HTC is going to have some serious issues.
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coco, 22 Dec 2009 @ 10:02am

WHY???
I'm having a hard time understanding what the C&D was for. You cant claim copyright infringement because something LOOKS the same?

If they were just betting on the small guy being afraid of the legal hammer, thats criminal.
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Hephaestus (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 10:08am

Re: Re: reverse it
"History repeats itself. Those who fail to learn from the failures of others are doomed to repeat them."

Hey that my line .... ;) ... kind of
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mjb5406 (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 10:12am

Re:
Has anyobe ever looked up the definition of the word "Eris"? It's either a genre of jumping spider, or the name of the Greek goddess of strife. Excellent name for a phone!
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2009 @ 10:39am

Open Development?
So how's that Open Development going Google? Oh, not so well?
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Andrew F (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 10:39am

Re: reverse it
You need to do a little more to make your argument work. What would happen if Motorola used an HTC widget? Since Motorola is a direct HTC competitor, then that would look a little sketchy.

In this case, the developer is not Motorola, but you could potentially download the widget onto a Motorola Droid and make it look all HTC-ish -- thereby nixing some of the advantage the Eris might have had over the Droid.

That said, it requires quite a few jumps. I imagine the number of consumers who say "Oh, I'd get an Eris because it's so pretty, but I can just download the widgets onto a Droid and get a keyboard instead" is fairly small.

I am also very much alarmed how you can copyright or trademark UI elements and "look-and-feel". I mean, imagine if someone had copyrighted the scroll-bar. We'd have like a gajillion variations of the scroll-bar to get around the copyright, most of them would suck (e.g. see that thing on Google Wave), and users would be horribly confused over the design inconsistency.
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Derek Bredensteiner (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 10:45am

Re: WHY???
"If they were just betting on the small guy being afraid of the legal hammer, thats criminal."

And standard operating procedure.
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Andrew F (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 10:46am

Re: Re: They aren't "ditching" the widget.
Ironically, the actual HTC phone owners are probably worse off now.

See, if I was downloading the widget onto a phone manufactured by an HTC competitor, there's likely already a look-and-feel mismatch between the manufacturer's widgets and the one I downloaded. So long as the replacement is reasonably "pretty", there's no loss.

On the other hand, for an HTC owner, one of the reasons I may have downloaded that widget was because it offered better functionality and integrated well with the other parts of the Sense UI. Now that the replacement looks different, part of its original value to me is lost.

I mean, there are Apple users who insist only on downloading third party software that conforms to Apple's look-and-feel. Imagine how'd pissed they be if Apple started saying that only core OS X apps could use the brushed metal look.
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Christopher (profile), 22 Dec 2009 @ 11:37am

negative
I understand they want to keep control. You do that by competing, not suing. HTC is wrong, and so are you.
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Difranco, 22 Dec 2009 @ 1:43pm

HTC phones are junk....
I'm on my 4th phone (3rd Replacement) since April this year. The digitizer keeps dying on my Diamond Touch.... never will I make that mistake again.
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news u can use, 22 Dec 2009 @ 4:32pm

This just in:

GoodYear Sends Cease & Desist To Firestone because they made tires that are also round with grooves refered to as "threads".
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Dah Bear!, 22 Dec 2009 @ 9:49pm

Re:
This just in: You are an idiot. No film at 11.
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