Both of these posts are completely opposite to what the system of production should be. OBVIOUSLY we would see the apple design as intelligent, and obviously thats how we think intelligent tablets should look now that they have been established as functional and successful, but that is completely the result of apple engineers hard work, not some universal tablet design that just makes sense. I can understand why apple would be so pissed. They created a novel (and initially, quite criticized for several aspects of it's simplicity) piece of technology, and because everyone likes it, they're claiming that it was barely designed at all. Apple made tough and meticulous decisions that allowed them to nail this design, and now, seeing that they are successful, other companies are claiming that those decisions were obvious and effectively unmade. And even if the designs were in fact "obvious," and impossible to do any other way, then why hadn't tablets taken this form before now? And even further, why do we patent things at all, if whenever someone releases a design seen as intelligent and novel, it can be declared as the industry standard and infinitely copyable? We patent so that apple has an incentive to make such a well thought out product, not so they can "shut out other designs that are simply following the same completely objective universal blueprints for the tablet computer."
> then why hadn't tablets taken this form before now?
They have. Many times. Not one aspect of the iPad design is original. That's the whole problem. They're able to claim other people's inventions as their own. It's tantamount to theft.
That's what makes this whole scenario so galling. They're committing the crime they're accusing others of.