Rumor : Apple Plans to “Tax” iPhone ?

Maybe one of the biggest surprises to Apple that came with the success of iPod, was the emergence of the various iPod accessories. Somewhat belatedly Apple moved to capitalize on this ecosystem by introducing 10% tax for the right to display “Made for iPod” logo on various add-ons.

As with all the taxes, not everyone was happy and not everyone complied. And there’s only so much Apple could do to about it.

Things may be different for the iPhone. The recent patent filing shows how Apple can make any iPhone accessory maker that connects to the device, become a part of “Made for the iPhone” certification program. For a small fee, of course.

Patent application is really simple and describes:

…accessory detector coupled to the connector and configured to detect whether an external accessory coupled to the connector may interfere with wireless communication with the handheld device.

If implemented, the detector will analyze any accessory - power and data cables, hands free equipment, speakers, etc; - that you will connect to your iPhone and will decide whether it may interfere with the phone operation.

Such detector will give Apple a winning hand to herd all accessory makers into “Made for the iPhone” certification program, for a small 10% fee on each accessory, as an “accidental” side effect.

[ via Unwired View ]

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 11:18 pm and is filed under Mobile Phone, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.