On Friday, a jury of nine unanimously decreed what we already knew: Samsung copied the iPhone. Samsung got greedy and made smartphones, for a while, that hit a little too close to Home for Apple. Samsung phones mimicked everything from the iPhone’s overall design to its Home button, and even its squared, colorful icons. Perhaps most ridiculous, Samsung, for a time, even copied the fun, uniquely Apple, rubberbanding effect that happens when you’re scrolling through data on an iPhone or iPad.
Because of how obvious this copying was, Apple has won $1 billion in damages from Samsung. This victory is huge and it may have negative impacts on phones already released and those coming out in the future. Android phones, which currently comprise 60-70 percent of all smartphones sold around the world, could lose key functionality. Many of them could be taken off the market or be drastically redesigned so that they don’t remotely resemble the iPhone. Let’s examine the ways Samsung’s loss might have screwed things up for Android users.
What’s at stake
Before we fly in head first, let’s detail exactly what’s at stake and why all this is happening.
Despite the fact that Xerox first invented things like icons, folders, and many other standards of computing devices today, both Apple and Microsoft have been working separately (together) to take down an emerging common enemy: Google. With Android, Google is becoming a big player in smartphones, tablets, and is already entering the PC space. Google built Android on top of Linux and has given it away to manufacturers for free. Microsoft hates Android because it makes its living selling operating systems, not giving them away. Apple hates Android because it is riding on the success of the iPhone, which single-handedly ignited the smartphone business, and is now becoming the Windows of the phone and tablet world.
For decades, Microsoft and Apple battled one another, but they resolved their differences long ago and signed large cross-licensing patent agreements. Apple even showed a Nokia Windows Phone at the Samsung trial as an example of a phone that isn’t copying the iPhone.
To try and stop or slow Android, Microsoft has bullied nearly every Android manufacturer into paying it licensing fees of $5-$15 per Android device sold. Apple’s preferred method of attacking Android has been to sue the pants off of every company making Android devices. Samsung and HTC have been its top targets. Apple and Microsoft probably aren’t calling each other up on the phone each night to cackle at their progress against Android, but they do have a mutual interest in keeping the status quo. Google scares them. (Learn more about how this lawsuit affects Android.)
With that out of the way, let’s press on.
Zooming is going to get difficult
Two of the key patents that the jury just upheld were for “pinch to zoom” and “double tap to zoom.” Pinching and double tapping to zoom are natural touch gestures we all use constantly to zoom in on web pages, maps, and all kinds of things on phones. Simple hand gestures should not be patentable. Regardless of my thoughts, we can expect Samsung and many other major Android manufacturers (maybe even Google) to remove this functionality from future phones and possibly from phones already on the market via an over-the-air update. How will we zoom now? Well, we’ll probably have to tap an onscreen zoom bar or something stupid. Not cool.
No “rubber banding”
While few Android phones have this effect, likely for fear of angering Apple, don’t expect any of them to gain it anytime soon. Because of this lawsuit, iOS devices will likely be the only phones that allow you to pull (stretch) a page beyond its scrolling point and then release it to watch it snap back in place. It’s purely an ornamental design element, but it is one of those small things that makes the iPhone so fun to use. Google and other manufacturers have already used bands of color and other effects to hide their mimicry of Apple’s scrolling effect. Expect more experiments in the future, but nothing that too closely resembles Apple.
No “slide to unlock”
Whether you’ve realized it or not, most Android phones have already been affected by Apple’s litigation. Though this trial didn’t involve “slide to unlock” patent at the end, other Apple lawsuits have, and you can bet that Android manufacturers are going to try to avoid any gesture or software patents Apple has actively protected. Most Android phones have already been altered to avoid breaking this patent. Most newer Android phones do not unlock with a straight left-to-right sliding motion anymore (or at least a bar that you swipe across). Expect the onscreen ways you unlock your phone to get stranger as time goes on.
>> Next page: Android could lose more than a few gestures
….I just want to see something on android that you cant get on Iphone…: Iphone can´t read/write pen drives using micro usb port, moving files to/from any computer with a usb cable in the moment, make video calls using GSM, use a S-pen like Note, to mention only a few things. Galaxy SII, SIII and Note are able to make those things.
Pinch to zoom is way older than the iPhone! It’s sad to see again that justice is more a matter of how good your lawyer is and how much you pay him…
That said, I agree that Android DID copy things from the iPhone.
I have seen and used touch screen technology that used double-tap to zoom in since 2000. It was a point of sale system at a restaurant I worked at. We had multiple windows for each function (entering an order, payment and customer queue) and would double-tap the window to make it full screen, enter in the info and then double tap the corner of the window to reduce it again.
This is clearly prior art that was withheld or ignored.
Mark my words, since Steve Jobs died I’m not expecting anything original out of Mac.
Applefags should kill themselvse
Samsun yes;)-
Apple already made a mark to the people…
Apple service is so bad, today we try to contact apple question about my ipad3 with the ATV mirror problem, all they want is $99 dollars protact plan, i so cant believe what i hear from them, i only had this ipad3 about 4 month, they said cant answer my question until i pay the $99 dollars, wtf is that, its the software problem, we got ATV, iphone4s. 2x Ipad, how many $99 should I pay? fuck Apple. we will move to window 8 very soon.
Microsoft will show you the real rip off. A license for every single peace of software for every single computer. I have never experienced any software-problems with Apple. It’s a stable system. The Apps are made by all kind of developers from all over the world. You have to contact the developer – or may have a overall protection plan, so Apple can take care of every single question you may have and lead you thru the steps on apps made by others…
Unlike Microsoft – You can use the same app on all your devices.
If one person in a service has a bad day or habit, not the whole company is bad. I can phone every huge company in the world – several times in a row, and will get different answers every single time. One person on a desk is not the the whole company Apple.
So what we are talking about here?
You’re premise is flawed on the section “Cheer up. It could be good.” Why would manufacturers come up with innovative phones if they could simply patent innovative ideas? Potential to make billions with no manufacturing costs trumps what your optimism might suggest.
The system is broken and iPhone fanboys are as bad a hipsters.
The gestures and universal search things are just terrible. How could anyone sanely ban other companies from using those features / techniques? I feel bad for Android on those 2 points alone…
This verdict means very little. It’s already come out that the jurors ignored prior art and the head juror is a patent holder with an agenda. The judge will very likely dismiss the verdict or samsung will win on appeal.
“I don’t know if Apple came up with it first or not”
If you don’t know, they probably didn’t, but the more important question is, what are you doing writing content if you can’t answer those kinds of questions?
Exactly
There have been a lot of people and companies experimenting with touchscreens for a lot of years. I do not know if Apple was the first to combine pinching with zooming. In my experience, the iPhone was the first device to use this. I’ve clarified the language in the article. You could be right. We don’t know what will happen. This article outlines some possibilities, assuming the whole thing doesn’t get reversed. You never know what will happen with the legal system, but $1 billion is a big incentive for everyone else not to cross Apple.
You wrote this a couple days ago didn’t you? A quick, and I mean quick Google search reveals tons of discussion on the prior art issue and fairly clear evidence http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/151908/apple-rubber-banding-pinch-to-zoom-patents-challenged-by-samsung-witnesses that pinch to zoom for example was apparently demoed to Apple 4 years before their iphone came out, and samsung presented evidence on that.. if the jurors claimed there was no prior art, it’s obvious that with averaging something like less than 2 minutes per question.. they weren’t actually reviewing this properly.
I made a reply to you but the system seemed to eat it. It had a URL in it, maybe it needs to be approved or something..
I approved it but I don’t see it here. In any case, I’ve removed the line. Thanks for the link!