Apple won a major battle in its "thermonuclear war" against Google's Android last week when a nine-member jury said Samsung, the Korean handset manufacturer behind best-selling smartphones like the Galaxy S series, deliberately infringed on six Apple patents, such as pinch-to-zoom features and "bounce-back" scrolling. (Google licenses a basic stock version of the operating system Android to phone-making partners, including Samsung.) Now, Apple is seeking injunctions that would prohibit the sale of eight offending Samsung devices, including the Galaxy S II. While Samsung is expected to appeal, the ruling (which included $1 billion in damages) will surely turn the smartphone industry on its head in the coming months, forcing the Galaxy phone maker to either pay hefty licensing fees or redesign its products to further separate them from Apple devices. Can Android persevere?
Android is in big, big trouble: Maybe Samsung didn't intentionally blatantly copy Apple, says James Kendrick at ZDNet, but remember: Androids "didn't start selling in significant numbers until they adopted a design similar to the iPhone." For better or worse, "for a smartphone to sell in the millions, it must be similar in form and function to the iPhone." That's what consumers want. And Samsung can no longer make phones like that.
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