A pretty detailed explanation of the current situation and what will happen if the judge does find (and will) Google guilty is already given by Engadget’s Nilay Patel, who happens to be a copyrights lawyer previously;
Link: Android source code, Java, and copyright infringement: what’s going on?
His view: Google is in trouble.
Oracle will charge Google and probably all the handset manufacturers a licensing fee for every Android handset shipped.
Which I will argue, will be actually a good thing for Android lovers.
Making Android into a product that actually costs money will probably result in the following situations;
a. Android will probably become as expensive an mobile OS as Windows 7 is, and manufacturers will no longer stuff Android onto handsets with shitty hardware that are not capable enough to support the OS anymore, simply because they will have to pay for it. Android will only be reserved for higher end handsets that can support it, and justify paying the licensing fees for that particular handset by the manufacturer. Better hardware on Android means a much better Android experience for all Android lovers.
b. It will paint a much clearer picture of how influential Android support by consumers are. Right now the majority of Android market share is probably made up by the millions of cheap arse 0-dollar handsets whose owners know nothing about the OS that runs inside of these devices. If Android is strictly a smartphone OS, that ensures only people who understand what Android is will be buying Android devices for use.
c. It will obviously make the whole smartphone marketplace more even out. And by then I mean the whole non-iPhone marketplace. Anywhere you go these days telcos are marketing the iPhone in a separate category from the other smartphones, and due to the widespread availability of Android it has been simply marketed as the phone that iPhone haters or people who cannot afford iPhones should buy, skewing the actual representation of iPhone opponents in the smartphone market today. A payable Android will ensure that manufacturers and telcos no longer favors Android over WP7 or any other smartphone OS when marketing an iPhone alternative, and this will bring some of the currently less popular, but definitely better alternatives to Android such as WP7 and WebOS, and probably, eventually, the mobile version of the current Blackberry Playbook OS into the limelight to compete with Android, giving consumers a much wider choice of toys to play with.
Overall, Google losing the case to Oracle will only benefit consumers, Android lover or not. So why not? The only one who will be sulking is Eric Schmidt, who, after his current demotion from Google CEO, will probably be sacked once Oracle wins its case.
