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You know what, if people all used the same technology, they wouldn't go to something new compared to if they were limited to that technology.

Let me put that into simple words. If Apple doesn't have a patent then all smartphones will have the pinch to zoom, yeah, it's an awesome feature.. but what about those companies putting money into something unique other than the pinch effect, something like a 'turn right for zoom in' thing. (Pretend you are using one of those old volume increase/decrease knobs on the touch screen) and turn left for zoom out. (You basically kind of draw a circle with 2 or 3 fingers in the direction)

I'm sure people wouldn't like it first but then they might say "wow, this is cool and unique effect", and I will be one of those.

Limiting software or product will make the developers 'think outside the box' which will bring in new ideas the whole time. It's nice seeing companies competing against each other because that means we have something new every time and not for example 'Android on all smartphones with a different design'.

If Apple then sees that other companies are advancing in new technology they will have to then again, create something unique, so people should have a reason to buy their product. Right now Apple is moving slowly and doesn't have a hurry because there isn't much of a big competition.

Creativity and uniqueness is key to the market, if you want your product to be in the top you have to create something unique based off your ideas, and not taking someone else's stuff and put it into your products.

Nice debate..
(To make myself clear, I am on RunarM's side)

Things like Pinch and Zoom shouldn't really be a patented feature because if you think about it it's actually a basic/generic and quite obvious thing to do on touch based devices. When it comes to touch phones and tablets the way a user interacts with the device is basically limited to what you can do with your fingers..

1 finger to touch the screen to perform an action
1 finger to touch/drag the screen for scrolling/panning
2 or more fingers to zoom and/or rotate
When it comes to things like games you could hold the device and use your thumbs at the sides to control the game

So pinch and zoom is in no way a unique feature if you really think about it and I think the list above pretty much sums up everything you could do with your fingers on a touch based device so there isn't much else any other company could do with it that would be innovative :?

It's a lot like the interface as well with the grid icon layout that both Apple and Google use in their touch phone and tablet OS's is there any way to make that better?. Microsoft's Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7/8 improved on the icon interface by using tiles instead which I think is really good and a lot better than the icon interface everyone else is using. So we have an icon UI and a tile UI and both do the job but where do we go from here in terms of innovation? :?

You can't patent pinching??? I never had respect for apple just because they think every android is a direct clone of them and everyone's trying to steal from them. I mean how can they patent a natural human movement? That 's like Mcdonalds said "We will sue any restaurant for allowing people to eat out of their homes and we came up with that idea first"

at least its not going to be like the new windows phone shake to turn off feature!!