Palm Ignores USB Group's Warning, Restores iTunes Sync

Oh, it’s really on now. This morning Palm announced webOS 1.2.1 another point release to its new webOS platform that restores media synchronization with the latest version, 9.0.1, of iTunes. Moreover, the company has gone the extra step of extending that synchronization feature to photos. This despite Apple’s repeated efforts to disable that feature and warnings from the USB Implementers Forum that Palm is potentially violating its USB-IF Membership Agreement by disguising its Pre handset as an Apple device.

From Palm’s webOS 1.2.1 version information:

Feature changes to existing applications
System

Resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (9.0.1).

Media sync now synchronizes photo albums, maintaining the album structure in the Photos app.

How did Palm (PALM) do this? By once again making the Pre masquerade as an Apple (AAPL) device. Plug your Pre into your computer and set it to Media Sync and it identifies itself like this:

USB Product ID: 0×1209
USB Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple, Inc)
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.

A brazen move, considering the USB-IF specifically warned Palm against doing exactly this in its Sept. 22 letter to the company:

I attach for your information the USB-IF’s adopted and published policy regarding Vendor Identification Numbers (VIDs). Under the Policy, Palm may only use the single Vendor ID issued to Palm for Palm’s usage. Usage of any other company’s Vendor ID is specifically precluded. Palm’s expressed intent to use Apple’s VID appears to violate the attached policy.

Please clarify Palm’s intent and respond to this potential violation within seven days.

Now that Palm has “clarified its intent” with regard to this potential violation, I wonder how Apple and the USB-IF will respond. Do they have any recourse? The USB-IF could revoke Palm’s membership in the group, but what would that accomplish? Very little, as far as I can tell. Certainly, it wouldn’t prevent Palm from continuing to update its devices to synch with iTunes.

Reached for comment, Palm declined to offer one. Apple and the USB-IF have not yet responded to my requests. If and when they do, I’ll update here.

UPDATE: Looks like this cat and mouse game is going to go another round. This just in from Apple: “As we’ve said before, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players.” Presumably, iTunes 9.0.2 will disable Palm’s latest fix.

http://blog.macb.net Mac Beach

When desperation enters, our ability to feel shame exits.

If I were on the cusp of buying a Palm Pre the last thing in the world that would put me over the line would be the ability to interact with a service that clearly doesn’t want to interact with it.

It would do them more good to work deals with Amazon and other content providers that might (eventually) serve as an incentive for Apple to work with them too.

This contest makes both companies look childish, but in this one case I’d have to say that, relatively speaking, Apple is the adult in the room.
Mike Lane

@Mac – it is grossly unfair to say that Apple is acting childishly. They are simply trying to protect their intellectual property that they have spent years and 10′s of millions of dollars developing. And Palm, like many American companies, would rather steal from others than create their own innovative products and services. In this case, Palm is ignoring the same rules that they have agreed to with the USB-IF so that they can fool someone else’s software into thinking they are related, and doing so for economic gain. Hmmm, if this were a person impersonating, say a Rockefeller (as did just recently happen), they would be arrested for fraud and thrown in prison. Why not in this case? Palm is an immoral and unethical company. Why would anyone buy products from a thief?
http://blog.macb.net Mac Beach

Agreed.

So why doesn’t Apple stop changing the interface and just sue them?

To me that would be the responsible thing to do.
http://www.fernandojfernandez.com/blog/ Fernando Fernandez

I love my pre. I used to love itunes until I found it on the computers of clients who didn’t even own ipods or apple hardware.
If they are gonna push the software that aggressively, hten why not mask the iphone.
As far as a law suit, they have enough on their hands with Google claiming anti trust.
Lenny Pudinskaya

Why is Palm effing with their customer user experience? As Craig Hunter clearly points out, Apple has already provided a method for syncing with iTunes, which is used by RIM and others. This can only mean that a battle with Apple is more important to Palm than their customers, and even the future of Palm.
Fred Hamranhansenhansen

> I love my pre. I used
> to love itunes until I
> found it on the computers
> of clients who didn’t
> even own ipods or apple
> hardware.

I can see you are using a Pre because it adds to your false sense of righteous indignation and strokes your tiny ego.

iTunes is the most popular PC application on the planet. It isn’t put on those computers by Apple, it’s put on by the owners of the computers.

Further, iTunes does not have any vendor lock-in. NONE. The media is stored in ISO MPEG-4 and the catalog index is stored in XML, the universal format for sharing data between different computer systems or applications. There is no way to make a music library more compatible with the entire world than to store it in XML and ISO MPEG-4. You can delete iTunes from your computer entirely and still sync your iTunes library with a Blackberry or Nokia. Palm has no excuse.

Palm Ignores USB Group's Warning, Restores iTunes Sync

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