Apple's $1B patent verdict could corner market

The dispute centers on Apple's dissatisfaction with Google's entry into the phone market when the search company released its Android operating system and announced any company could use it free of cost.

Google entered the market while its then-CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board, infuriating Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who considered Android to be a blatant rip-off of the iPhone's innovations. Apple filed its patent infringement lawsuit in April 2011, engaging the country's highest-paid patent lawyers to demand $2.5 billion.

The verdict didn't faze some iPhone users, who said that they already know Apple phones are superior.

The rivals are "modeling phones based on what they see with the iPhone," said David Green of Wareham, Mass., finishing a call on his iPhone while waiting to catch a train.

He switched to Apple from a BlackBerry about a year ago, after becoming disenchanted with the reliability and technological features of non-Apple smartphones.

"When I got the iPhone, it worked so well that I told my friends, 'Now I have a REAL smartphone,'" Green said.

Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, and Mark Jewell in Boston contributed to this report.