If you take the assumption that Microsoft copied Apple, as this author has, I think the opposite conclusion can be drawn, that Apple very quickly lost in the marketplace and was circling the drain in 1997. There's a very real possibility that the iPhone will end up a marginal player within a few years, if Android maintains its trajectory.
In my opinion though, the big difference between Apple v Microsoft and Apple v Samsung is that Microsoft at least combined Apple's innovations with many innovations of their own, and Microsoft never tried to imitate Apple's trade dress.
You can't boil the Apple v Samsung conundrum down to a single paragraph, but I don't see much reason to defend Samsung -- all the serious innovation on the Android side is coming from Google, not Samsung. Samsung can make perfectly awesome devices without also spreading a bit of KIRF jelly on some products.
The article also casually throws out the iPod as an example where copying didn't hurt, when Apple was actually intensely protective of the main interface element, the click-wheel. Successfully defending that made also-ran mp3 players seem somewhat alien/weird. If anything, the success of the iPod emboldened them to continue this strategy.
The iPod won because competitors took too long to take the iPod seriously, and then too long to identify why it was successful.
By the time competitors managed to make competitive products, Apple had the iTunes Store and perhaps the most brilliant and long-lasting marketing campaign of a technology product, ever.
In my opinion though, the big difference between Apple v Microsoft and Apple v Samsung is that Microsoft at least combined Apple's innovations with many innovations of their own, and Microsoft never tried to imitate Apple's trade dress.
You can't boil the Apple v Samsung conundrum down to a single paragraph, but I don't see much reason to defend Samsung -- all the serious innovation on the Android side is coming from Google, not Samsung. Samsung can make perfectly awesome devices without also spreading a bit of KIRF jelly on some products.