Source: Ars Technica
___________
According to documents filed by Creative with the United States International Trade Commission in mid-May, Steve Jobs approached a Creative employee at MacWorld 2001 to talk shop about Creative's then flagship product, the Nomad Jukebox. What begun at this innocuous meeting may well have led to the creation of a digital audio empire that could have rivaled what Apple has put together on its own. On the other hand, it may have also led to stunning failure for both parties.
In the past few months, one of Apple's biggest rivals in the digital audio player space, Creative, has begun competing with Apple using
legal tactics. Looking back before the birth of the iPod, Creative had a significant lead on Apple, with almost a full year's experience in developing and selling hard-disk-based players. What is almost completely unknown, however, is that Apple was willing to work with Creative to develop an Apple-licensed player as opposed to building their own from scratch.