Now, you will hear that Apple could force Motorola to recall and even destroy all of the existing units (all at Motorola’s expense), but there is a danger in doing that. Right now Apple is still trying to ride the “we are protecting our intellectual property” train. If they force Motorola to recall and destroy millions of phones and tablets… well the consumers out there (even many Apple fans) might change their minds about what Apple is all about.

Now enter the new CEO Tim Cook; so far he has shown that he cares less about the consumer and m about the stock holders. Most of his recent moves have shown that even he might be aware that he cannot run Apple the same way as Steve Jobs. He has been catering to the stock holders so much that we really do expect to see consumer opinion on the company change. There has already been a noticeable change of opinion on the press (with the exception of the hard core Apple fan sites).

So here is the rub, on the one hand Apple has won a very important tactical battle with Google (after all Google is buying Motorola), but they might also find some of their recent tactics backfiring on them. Remember that you cannot argue one thing while doing that same thing yourself. Right now Apple is trying to claim that Motorola (and Google) are abusing their patents. We wonder if Motorola’s appeal will also bring up the same questions unless things have changed Motorola does still get an appeal on this.

Apple is in an awkward position here. On the one hand, Apple would love nothing more than to force a big loss on Motorola and by extension Google. On the other they have to move carefully or risk losing popularity with the market. Although the iPhone and the iPad are very popular, the majority of owners are not hardcore Apple fans. These are casual owners that might reconsider their next tablet purchase if Apple is see as a greedy company and demands the destruction of all of those phones, especially before all appeals are done.

It would not be a good thing with Windows 8 tablets running x86 CPUs on the way, possibly in Q4 this year.  This will be one to watch as Apple’s future is spelled out over 2012 under Tim Cook…

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