I'm not overlooking your argument, I'm saying your argument is bogus in light of everything else Android does.
Again, just because there are a bunch of other non-infringing products doesn't negate that fact that some do. If Honda copies a new internal combustion technique from Toyota for its 2011 Civic engine, is this ok, because the Honda Accord, CRV and Odyssey engines don't use this technology?
It is ? I thought it was the overall experience of the tightly integrated UI, the rich eco-system, the simplistic industrial design and the vast availability of vendor support through its retail and online representatives.
Please. Say in 2007 Apples iPhone was just an iPod with calling functionality, and you could use the click wheel to dial a number. It would have been great looking, with a nice industrial design and it would have had Apples award winning customer support.. and it would have flopped.
The rich ecosystem was a byproduct of the iPhone's success.
But maybe I'm just over thinking it. It's all about the LG/Samsung made touch screen. That's all the iPhone is, just another phone with a Touch screen.
Again, taking what I said completely out of context. The touch screen is a fundamental part of Apples product differentiation, coupled with iOS. Of course a great touch screen is useless if your using it to control DOS.
I didn't ignore the Oracle tidbit, I don't have to reply to each nit pick point you make. The Oracle discussion is a whole other thing and you'd be surprised at how bad that is going for Oracle if you bothered to check up on it beyond some sensationalistic headlines.
Everything I've read seems to think it could go either way. There is some pretty compelling evidence to suggest Google handled the situation in a very underhanded manner. Obviously, innocent until proven guilty though.
And this is what was asked that you point out, which you then just replied you didn't have to.
Slide to unlock, swipe for next, pinch to zoom, capacitive multitouch software keyboard, top menu, dock, android app marketplace inertia based scrolling etc. Understandably, Apple borrowed some of these ideas from other sources (but paid the proper royalties). And admittedly some of this may rest on the shoulders of the manufacturers.
There were no phones that integrated all these interface mechanisms like the iPhone, and slowly but surely Andriod started adding them 1 by 1.
It's quite related. You're saying the iPhone changed Android. I'm saying Android has been like all along, it's been hardware agnostic from the start. The beauty of that is that it enabled OEMs to make SE P800 form factor phones when demand increased for such a beast after the launch of the iPhone. Android was ready to accomodate OEMs with that because Android is a software OS, it doesn't know about underlying hardware except what you tell it it needs to know through its driver API.
As long as it stays away from key iPhone/or iPad technologies. You can't fain ignorance and suggest Google is the innocent supplier of a generic OS. If Samsung or any other OEM wants to make an iPhone knock off and Google obliges, then those to parties share responsibility from any fallout.