Comment by timschmidt 6 days ago
I'm sure whatever differences you see seem important to you.
None of them prevented a $15 iPad case from working flawlessly with my TouchPad for a half dozen years.
Tapping into Apple's ecosystem in such a way is exactly the sort of action Apple dislikes, for obvious reasons.
That's funny because I see it exactly the opposite. Apple won against Samsung despite Samsung's phone seeming no more similar to Apple's than the Touchpad was to an iPad. Industry watchers at the time were flabbergasted that anyone would sue over a curved edge, and that Apple who had defended itself in lawsuits over similarly trite details in the past would do so. Wins tend to embolden.
It's well documented that mobile is a minefield of lawsuits seemingly aimed not so much at winning as at establishing cross-licensing agreements to mitigate the massive patent warchests of established players. A practice Apple has proven to be adept at. Just entering the mobile space carries a near 100% chance of getting sued by everyone else already occupying it.
You can be of the opinion that something isn't worthy of a lawsuit. Doesn't mean one won't happen. In my humble experience, any pretense can be sufficient. And this one has seemed likely to me since 2011.
Those differences are precisely why suing wouldn't be possible. Apple barely won against Samsung and they were claiming not only the hardware design (where almost every element was ripped off), but also that Samsung copied Apple software design too.
In my opinion, Touchpad's different edges, corners, and radically different software meant HP wasn't likely to get sued.