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What Apple has done it the past with Mac OS X (the desktop OS) is that they go and buy the product from you.

Examples: * Coverflow(first standalone app by a developper) was bought by Apple. * The new iTunes visualizer was also first developped and then bought by Apple.

We'll see how Apple handles it with the iPhone

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Not always the case.

For example: Watson (http://www.karelia.com/watson/), was killed by Apple's Sherlock. Later, SandVox (http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/) was later followed up by Apple's iWeb. The list goes on...

Indie Mac developers have taken to calling this act, "Sherlocking". See a mainstream usage of the term here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1137

So, Apple swings both ways. :)

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