What Will the Apple Patent Lawsuit Verdict Mean for Samsung Galaxy S3, S2, Nexus and Tablet Owners?

After Apple's landmark victory against Samsung in the epic patent infringement case, consumers may find their options in the mobile phone and/or tablet markets somewhat restricted, at least until Samsung and possibly other manufacturers roll out new technology that has been altered to conform to legal mandates, tweaked and tested.

The jury verdict in the case, which came unexpectedly quick after just three days of deliberations, found that Samsung infringed on many of Apple's software and design patents. The products that this decision will affect include older devices such as the Nexus S 4G and S2, rather than the newer offerings like the Galaxy S3. There is a definite possibility that Apple could request an injunction on the applicable devices, forcing Samsung to remove them from shelves and halt production of them until it has addressed and resolved the infringement issues at hand.

In terms of other products like the Galaxy tablet, consumers need not worry. According to the jury, the Samsung tablet did not infringe on any Apple tablets and therefore users of the device will feel no impact, nor will Samsung be forced to change its technology or yank it from the marketplace.

The decision in this case, however, will most likely have an impact on the Android market. While Samsung is the largest manufacturer of Android phones, it does have other competitors in that market and the technology used in those devices is often similar in nature. Now that Apple has established its upper hand on the patent issues, other Android makers like Google are now aware that their devices and technology may also be called to task for infringing on Apple's patents and similar lawsuits and resulting payouts to what Samsung has suffered could befall on them too.

"Competitors will have to go back to the drawing board, and give their designers more creative license," Chris Carani, intellectual property attorney at McAndrews, Held & Malloy said in a recent interview with CNN. "They'll have to create something very different as far as the visual experience...that choice could be a great benefit for consumers."