Did Palm License the iTunes API for Palm Media Sync?
One of the lingering questions from yesterday's D7 announcement that the Pre will Sync directly with iTunes via Mac and PC is quite simply this: How did they do that? A close look at the video shows that iTunes appears to think that the Pre is, in fact, an actual iPod - "Syncing iPod" is displayed up there at the top.
John Lech Johansen speculates that Palm does this by basically making a Pre look like an iPod to iTunes:
- When you select “Media Sync” on the Pre, it will switch its USB interface to use Apple’s Vendor Id and the Product Id for a specific iPod model
- The Pre exposes a filesystem through Mass Storage Class that mimics the structure of an iPod
- The Pre responds to Apple’s custom USB command and returns XML info about the device
Both Johansen and our friends at TiPb believe that it will be very easy for Apple to break this functionality if and when they want to through an update to iTunes. So now the question is: is Palm doing this with Apple's good graces or are they doing it on the sly? When the rumor first broke yesterday morning we noted that Apple has licensed the necessary iTunes APIs for other media players, but it seems unlikely that they would do the same for a direct competitor like the Palm Pre.
At D7 yesterday, Rubinstein was very coy:
Kara Swisher of the WSJ asks "Is Apple open to this?" Rubenstein is coy "I can't see why they wouldn't be."
All Things D adds some more color about the exchange:
How is Apple going to feel about that, asks Walt. Rubinstein dodges a bit noting that there are a variety of ways of getting music out of iTunes. Walt pushes back pointing out that this is the first non-Apple device that is recognized as an Apple device by a Mac. Rubinstein dodges again. Seems he’s pretty obviously using his Apple knowledge here. McNamee jumps in. Apple is “practically a monopolist,” he says, adding that people should be able to use music that they purchase in what ever way they see fit.
Media sync feature also works with iPhoto and syncs photos to the Pre. That’s not likely to go over well at Apple either
So the short answer to the question in the title appears to be "No" - which we say despite what seems like a reasonable assumption: that it just takes more chutzpah to publicly reverse engineer an Apple product that we give Palm credit for.
Still, they certainly are talking like they didn't run this by Apple first. That raises all sorts of other questions: Will Apple break this functionality? Will they sue? Does Palm have so many powerful patents to hold over Apple that they're effectively not afraid of Apple's wrath?
