As was reported by TechCrunch and others today, during Apple’s quarterly earnings call, Apple’s COO Tim Cook answered questions about what Apple would do in the face of rising competition from Google’s Android, RIM BlackBerry and Palm.  Cook’s answer seems to be a warning to the competition that Apple will sue competitors that blatantly infringe on Apple’s intellectual property (IP):

We approach this business as a software platform business. We are watching the landscape. We like competition as long as they don’t rip off our IP. And if they do, we will go after anyone who does.

I don’t want to talk about any specific company. We are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off.

Cook declined to answer whether he was talking specifically about Palm, and the recently announced Palm Pre.

The current speculation is that this might be a personal battle between Palm and iPhone, since Palm’s executive chairman, Jon Rubinstein, used to be Apple’s product chief.  Rubinstein was installed as chairman by Elevation Partners, the company that recently invested an additional $100 million into Palm.

However, it’s much more likely a strong statement to anyone who’s thinking about entering into the already crowded smartphone market.  I would imagine that might actually be Microsoft, especially with so many Zune phone rumors flying around.

Filed under: Apple, Mobile Web