I don’t like to post patent applications but this one is fairly interesting. It seems Apple has something in the works to enable Windows Genuine Advantage capabilities into its OSes, ensuring you’re only using genuine Apple products and not pirating like a little weenus.
And, like most patent applications, this one won’t see daylight. Think about it: the OS costs $129 and is rarely pirated. How much money could they save by ensuring your Leopard disk is true and real when their market share is 2.2% and anyone booting up a Leopard DVD — be it a copy or real — into a computer is a win for the company.
Apple’s Antipiracy Patent Similar To Microsoft’s WGA [InformationWeek]
“anyone booting up a Leopard DVD — be it a copy or real — into a computer is a win for the company”
Apple might decide against implementing something like this, but I don’t think pirated installs are wins they care about that much. Anyone who pirates OS X (or XI, etc) isn’t likely to pay for Final Cut Pro or whatever else Apple sells. It might make an iPod purchase more likely, but not enough that they want to miss out on the OS sale.
The way I see it, one of the things that makes Apple a much more viable choice over Windows today than it was a few years ago is the third-party developer community. It’s no longer true that having a Mac means not being able to run the software you want. But that also means Apple only makes money by selling the platform — not extremely different from Microsoft. Apple still makes money on the hardware, but the switch to x86 means they’re ceding control there too. For Apple to keep growing profits, they have to scale, which means some of same restrictions and market forces that affect Microsoft start mattering more to Apple than before.