You all probably know that Apple are chasing after HTC at the moment over an issue of 20 infringed patents that Apple I guess want payment for, or want HTC to stop building. It seems like HTC are not the real target though and that Apple [AAPL] are actually after Google [GOOG] in a weird round-a-bout way. Anyway, Wired put an interesting article together that shows what an Android OS based phone would look like if Apple gets its own way.
Wired decided that rather than just posting what would be missing, they'd do a quick run down of what Android would not be allowed to run on the Google Nexus One (used as an example) and also illustrate what it would be like.
Patents include a time-based, non-constant translation of user interface objects between states which is how icons automatically drop to another row should one be inserted in an already full row of icons. When deleting an icon the other icons shift around to fill the gap... hence the large gaps and scroll bars on the image below.
The physical unlock button was added in the image below to show what would happen if the 'Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image patent had that feature shut down.
The patents obviously go on and on and on here with the image below representing what the phone would end up looking like if Apple managed to win all cases.
The more probably outcome is that Apple and HTC come to some agreement and that the hardware will stay the same, thus Apple will end up with continued competition and thus, will have to keep innovating so we can go through the whole Apple sues someone else thing in 3 years time.
Via: Pocketnow