Palm fights back (against Apple)

(Fortune Magazine) -- Not much rattles Apple. Disciplined and focused, the company lavishes attention on its own elegant products and rarely deigns to discuss rivals. Yet here was Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer and designated stand-in for ailing CEO Steve Jobs, erupting during an earnings call in late January at the mere mention of a pip-squeak competitor.

The pest in question was Palm (PALM), the fallen pioneer of handheld digital organizers, which two weeks earlier had unveiled a new smartphone, the Palm Pre, to rave reviews. Not only did the Pre have features the iPhone couldn't match - snazzy multitasking, universal search, a drop-down keyboard - but it also showed the kind of multitouch screen technology that Apple popularized with the iPhone. Cook didn't try to hide his annoyance. "We're going to go after anybody" who rips off Apple's technology, he said. "We'll use whatever weapons we have at our disposal."