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Imagine this scenario. While you are booting your computer or notebook, an advertisement pops up and the screen freezes for some time. The ad could be an audio or a plain visual one.
Regardless, it may offer you some product or could even offer the operating system (which enables you to start or boot your computer) free or at a lower cost. Tying you down for a few more seconds, the ad automatically fades away and allows you to continue with the booting process.
If Apple Computer has its way, this is precisely what you may get in some years to come. Steve Jobs, the chief executive officer and co-founder of the company, has aptly titled the patent application as 'Advertisement in an Operating System'. And he has listed himself as an 'inventor' of the application (US Patent Application 20090265214).
Jobs is credited with 133 patents -- unusual for a CEO of a large company who may have other important issues to handle -- of the 1,250-odd patents that Apple has been granted till date.
The current application became available for public inspection on October 22. It was just a day after software giant and rival Microsoft launched the much-touted Windows 7 operating system globally. It was also the same day when Nokia filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that the iPhone infringes some Nokia patents.
Apple's current patent application, drafted and filed by the attorneys at Fish & Richardson in Minneapolis explains that 'the operating system can disable some aspect of its operation to prompt the operator to pay attention to the advertisement'.
The advertisements may include, for example, a rectangular banner ad, an audio ad, a video clip, an image file, executable code, embedded information, or any other media, content, or interactive advertisement.
The application does not appear to be restricted to computer operating systems. The patent application mentions that in some implementations where the computer device is a cellular phone or music player, the user may be prompted to press a certain button in order to confirm that he is paying attention.
In some implementations, a user may dismiss an advertisement presentation prior to completion, for example, by clicking on the advertisement (or on an unoccupied screen area outside the advertisement if the presentation occupies only a portion of the screen).
Apple is known for building a mystique around its products like the Mac, iPod and iPhone. The question, of course, is why would the company want to embed advertisements, which irritate most users, in operating systems? The patent application, of course, does not answer this question.
The Palo Alto-based company is no stranger to patents. A month back, Apple filed a patent application which can tell Apple whether your iPod or iPhone has been subjected to moisture.
The new system also covers heat, shock, and tampering. If any one of these events occurs, it's logged -- time stamp and all -- and Apple support personnel can retrieve the information and check the service claims.
