It has been a hard-fought battle between Palm, which has used dirty tricks to get their Pre syncing with iTunes, and Apple who wouldn’t stand for it. The battle appears to be over, however, as the USB Implementers Forum has settled the dispute in favor of Apple.
The USB Implementers Forum, or USB-IF, is the overseer of all things USB. The non-profit organization is responsible for promoting the tech, as well as assigning the vendor IDs which allow USB devices to function.
Palm had previously alleged that Apple was improperly filtering non-Apple USB vendor IDs from syncing with iTunes, thereby blocking the company’s Pre smartphone. The USB-IF has disagreed with that claim, saying “[in] the view of the USB-IF, Palm’s allegation (if true) does not establish that Apple is using its Vendor ID (VID) contrary to the USB-IF’s policies,” the group said. “Therefore, under present USB-IF policies, the USB-IF does not consider the alleged use, without more, to be ‘improper.’”
The group went on to say that Palm may even be violating its member agreement which states that a device may only ever report one VID. In syncing the Pre with iTunes, Palm switches out the phone’s natural ID in favor of an Apple one which iTunes cannot filter.
The ruling leaves future iTunes sync support on the Palm Pre in jeopardy. It is not immediately clear if Palm can appeal the decision, or work within it to continue offering iTunes support.
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