Almost 2 decades ago, when Apple unveiled the Iphone, it was not looking to launch a new product; it redefined how humans will interact with technology for years to come. Apple’s touch user interface (UI) was so revolutionary with its sleek glass screen that you tap, swipe, pinch, and no stylus. For users, it felt so natural, intuitive, and magical that we never thought about wanting to have an experience using a phone other than an Iphone. It changed the world, and we have not looked back.
Built with years of R&D, innovation, secretive development, and design obsession, Steve Jobs and his team memebers worked day and night to achieve this wonder, perfecting the multi-touch experience that we now have. This was not just hardware; it was a carefully crafted software experience designed to feel utterly effortless and easy. Features like inertial scrolling, pinch-to-zoom, and fluid animations made the iPhone a leap beyond anything that had come before.
However, when Apple worked so hard on its iPhone debut, Google’s Android platforms started to evolve seemingly suspiciously, which became more evident over time. Mostly, all the early Andriod prototypes had physical keys and resembled a BlackBerry more than an Iphone. But once the Iphone was launched, Android pivoted very fast. New Android phones avoided the physical keyboard and looked at how they could incorporate a touch- keyboard embraced capacitive touchscreens, and introduced multi-touch gestures. To Apple, it looked like copying. Very blatant copying!
Steve Jobs was furious, and in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, he quoted, “I’m going to destroy Android because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.” Steve was one of the people who believed in originality and was engaged that Google, a company that Apple had once been friendly with, has now taken so many innovations and put them into their own operating system.
Apple launched multiple lawsuits against Android handset makers, especially Samsung, claiming patents.
Apple launched multiple lawsuits against Android handset makers, especially Samsung, claiming patent infringement on key touch interface features. The legal battles dragged on for years with mixed outcomes. In some cases, Apple won damages; in others, courts ruled that the features in question weren’t protectable or that Android had sufficiently modified them.
Although, Apple changed the world with its smart and innovative ideas, it could not withstand the legal battle.hat Steve Jobs saw as a blatant rip-off, the courts mostly saw as fair game—just the natural evolution of tech. Android took that vision, ran with it, and became the world’s most widely used mobile system. The magic Apple introduced was now everywhere, just not under their control.
Apple may have led the way, but in the eyes of the law, being first didn’t mean being protected. That wasn’t just a lost lawsuit for Jobs; it felt like a personal betrayal.