Apple is protecting it's territory on software that they have developed for their devices. The end user doesn't pay anything for the right to use iTunes...Apple picks up the development costs in order to assure a good product experience for people who purchase Apple iPods and iPhones.
They have allowed other device manufacturers access to the iTunes library (in the proper manner) that many other manufacturers have taken advantage of, to include RIM and several others. Most of Apple's competition have instead developed their own interface and media catalog software, either by rolling their own or licensing third-party software. Palm is actually the one doing things in an underhanded manner, by "spoofing" USB IDs licensed to Apple for use with their iPods and iPhones, and then using the interface that Apple built specifically for their products.
The unwashed majority of computer users out there do not understand that this is what is happening. Instead, all they see is big bad Apple being stingy with their "toys" and blocking Palm from making a legitimate profit. That Apple hasn't taken Palm to court over this issue speaks volumes of the tenuous legal grounds. Instead, they are appealing to the USB licensing body, and the USB licensing boy has pulled Palm's right to use the USB-compatible logo from all of their packaging and advertising. Apple has also taken steps to further identify their devices as different from Palm's, and have broken syncing in iTunes with Palm devices.
People like to compare Apple's business practices to Microsoft. I'm here to tell you, as a developer who works on both sides of the fence, there is a night-and-day difference between the two companies. Microsoft has an entire suite of unpublished APIs that are used only for Microsoft applications that give Microsoft an unbelievable advantage when running their own software on Windows. Apple, on the other hand, makes an extreme effort to publish each and every feature (and the requisite APIs) that their software uses, and how any developer can leverage those features in their operating system.
I have yet to come across an API set in Mac OS X that isn't documented, and yet, I run across them all the time when developing UI structures for Windows, and when I try to get more information about these undocumented APIs, I am told that the only way I can have access to that information is to pay an exorbitant fee to have access to Windows source documentation, and the only reason they allow this even now is because the EU forced their hand.
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