USB Industry Group Says It's Fine for iTunes to Block Palm Pre

The USB Implementers Forum has approved Apple modifying its iTunes desktop software so that the rival Palm Pre is unable to synchronize with it.

At its launch, the Pre allowed users to transfer music and video to and from their PC or Mac with iTunes. Palm made a fairly big deal of this, and it was the primary method for transferring multimedia files onto this device.

As the maker of a rival smartphone that also syncs with iTunes, Apple has modified this desktop software to block access by Palm's smartphone.

The maker of the iPhone turned to the USB Implementers Forum for support, and this industry group has come out in favor of Apple. The Pre had been using the USB hardware vendor code assigned by this trade group to the iPhone to sync with iTunes.

The USB Implementers Forum has informed Palm that modifying the Pre's software to re-enable iTunes synchronization is a violation of the industry group's rules.

Palm has not yet responded to this warning, but has said in the past that iTunes users deserve a seamless synchronization experience.

Source: Associated Press