Is Plagiarism something that should be taken as seriously as it is?
It does seem like it would be foolish to try to make the argument that smartphones all had glass front faces, touch screens, could easily browse the internet, play video games and all those other things before the iPhone was released. The original Android phone, by Google, was basically a Google branded Blackberry styled phone. Also, considering Samsung is/was a major component manufacturer for Apple it's fairly probable Apple had to show Samsung the iPhone well before the release to figure out technical issues. Samsung's attorneys have already basically admitted that Samsung reverse engineered the iPhone, they just haven't come forward to admitting that they copied it part for part, interconnect for interconnect. Also with all of the spy photos of pre-release iPhone case parts and components hitting the internet at a steady pace since the release of the first iPhone it would be rather obtuse to think that these anonymous people leaking photos and parts only leaked them to small-time shady tech sites and other tech rumors websites.
I don't understand some of the lash out against Apple on this considering how clear it is that the mobile phone industry was 180 degrees different before the iPhone was produced. Google has already, more or less, admitted that the copied iOS by recently making the claim that iOS features/functionality are "Commercially Essential" to the mobile phone industry.So… Basically Apple is just supposed to accept that they were robbed "for the betterment of the community." (the most crooked logic I've ever heard in my life) The other ridiculous claim Samsung seemed to make in the legal case was that because they sold Apple some of the parts for various products, that by default they have the right to copy the iPhone.
I did try to see this from the other side, but it seems like the only justification anyone on the other side really has is that Apple is an elitist technology manufacturer that makes people feel inadequate if they can't afford their stuff. Regardless of whether you can afford Apple technology or not it has nothing to do with the question of, "Who invented the iPhone/Modern Touch Smartphone?" If Apple chooses not to license various parts of their technology, either hardware or software designs, to other companies that is completely their choice to make. Samsung and others worked in the mobile phone industry and served customers for decades before the iPhone was invented. Why didn't they invent the iPhone first?
Realistically, only a desktop computer company that could engineer the hardware and software, being able to customize either at any point, would have come up with the challenge to miniaturize a desktop computer, add telephony functionality and have sufficient resources to build a workable product. Neither Samsung nor Google have sufficient resources in the required areas to justify having done anything other than copying the iPhone.