The irony will not be lost on the Android ecosystem. It was Google’s suggestion that Samsung make its products look less like Apple’s that convinced a Californian jury the former had wilfully infringed the latter’s patents. The damage to the Korean group from the verdict is painful, but surmountable. The real question is the hit to Google’s Android operating system.
More than half of all smartphones run on Android. Assuming other Android-using phonemakers, including HTC, Sony, ZTE, and Huawei, fear their own day in court (HTC has had several) then they will at least pause with new models as they navigate patent-sensitive areas.
Apple’s case was not just about smartphones but, if it is sensible, it will avoid trying to squash Android tablets via Samsung. No maker has yet made much headway here. Apple has outsold Samsung, the market number two, by nine to one, according to Bernstein. Any banning of Samsung’s tablets (to be decided in California next month) is only likely to push rivals into the arms of Microsoft, whose tablet-friendly Windows 8 is due to launch. Apple’s old foe is already friendly with tablet makers that have always outsourced PC operating systems to it.