Stefan Mileschin

Ended the war of the rounded rectangle has

Apple's thermonuclear war against Samsung for daring to oppose it in the smartphone market – the thermonuclear war over who owned the rounded rectangle – is finally over.

The seven years war appears to be nearly over after Apple and Samsung told a judge they’d resolved the first filed but last remaining of the legal disputes that once spanned four continents. The string of lawsuits started in 2011 after Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder who died that year, threatened to go “thermonuclear” on rivals that used the Android operating system.

No one is saying who paid what to end it all. Apple accused Samsung of “slavishly” copying the iPhone design, while a Samsung lawyer once called Apple a “jihadist”. The ensuing litigation cost each company hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees, and tested their reputations as innovators.

For Apple, the Samsung case had become a distraction over “ancient history" which probably should never have happened in the first place, as it did not really do much to stop other companies creating better solutions around the the Android operating system. The iPhone maker is now more focused on a a multibillion-dollar legal battle over patent royalties to be paid to mobile chip designer Qualcomm a fight that’s swept in regulators including the US Federal Trade Commission and Apple’s contract manufacturers.

In the first quarter this year, Apple held 16 percent of the smartphone market, while Samsung accounted for 23 percent, according to data from IDC. That compares with 30 percent for Samsung and 19 percent for Apple in 2012, the year of the original trial.

https://fudzilla.com/news/mobile/466...ry-the-hatchet