Pinching to zoom on touch-screen devices is such a common gesture today that it’s hard to believe Steve Jobs wowed audience members (who actually cheered and applauded for close to 20 seconds) when he first stretched his fingers against the iPhone’s glass face.

"With regard to gestures, I think it will be hard to change the status quo because they’ve already gained such widespread acceptance," says one top interaction designer at HP.

It has such widespread acceptance because everyone copied it. So the argument is because we've all copied "pinch-to-zoom" and our customers are now used to it, Apple shouldn't be able to force you to do something else?

Hmmm...strange argument. So if you own something and I steal it and later on you want it back, I can just say, "Well I've gotten used to using this, so you are out of luck." Interesting.

...the more important point is that both parties are now incentivized to behave differently. One can even argue that they're now predisposed to innovate like they've never done before.

I agree completely. It would be a shame if the smartphone race turned into the refrigerator, or dare I say television industry, when you go into a store and every television and refrigerator look exactly the same. Smartphones should all be distinct, at least in the operating system. This way we don't end up with 2 choices where 1 dominates, like Windows vs Mac.

Apple--which isn't evil no matter how some may think--may press on with its smartphone and tablet UI innovation in an effort to truly distinguish the look and feel of its products in an ever-busier market, conscious that Samsung is nipping at its heels. iOS is getting a little long in the tooth, and now may be the perfect time to spend company time transforming it into the next generation of smartphone OS's.

I sure hope this happens. If the verdict changes the copying behavior of its competitors, Apple is in a great position to reinvent the greatest invention of our time. Here's to innovation.