international news _ 24th August, 2006

Apple Loses Creativity

Text by Nick Lawrence (HigherFrequency)

Stylish electronic gizmo gurus Apple have gotten into a spot of bother over allegedly not exactly coming up with their own original ideas. Turns out fellow portable device makers and bitter rivals Creative have filed a suit against Steve Job’s pride and joy. According to the company that produces the Zen device, Apple’s iPod borrows heavily from technology for which they already own the patent. Whether or not there is something in this claim has not been proven but either way Apple decided to hand over a cool US$100million just to make the problem go away.

However, don’t worry about iPod’s disappearing off the shelves due to financial trouble anytime soon. Earlier this year Apple reached an impressive milestone when they sold their 15 millionth iPod unit and their digital music store iTunes currently commands around 80% of a US$1.1billion digital music market. However, Microsoft is about to launch their own integrated portable device service titled Zune, so Mr. Gates will no doubt be rubbing his sweaty palms together with this latest blow for Apple.