Thin: iPhone 5 surpasses Galaxy S2 in svelteness as lawyers ante up

The iPhone 5 retakes the thinness crown from the Samsung Galaxy S2 even as Apple’s lawyers look to get the latter banned from the market. The iPhone 4 debuted as by far the thinnest smartphone on the market last year, but recently lost the svelteness crown to the Galaxy S2 by almost literally a hair. Even though the latter is saddled with the widely derided Android interface and a second rate app store, it’s a blow as Apple has long been known for leading the market in thinness.

The shakeup is more a matter of timing than anything else, as the iPhone 5 was supposed to have debuted this past summer (as confirmed by Verizon’s CEO) but has instead slipped to a fall launch. That shift pushed the iPhone 5 launch past the Galaxy S2 launch, leading to the temporary reversal. However, Apple may be able to win the thin title by default if its lawyers have their way…



After Samsung’s Galaxy Tab debuted and looked suspiciously like the iPad, Apple filed lawsuits worldwide to get the copycat product banned from the marketplace. That battle has resulted in one Apple victory after another, with Android tablets getting battered so badly in the courtroom that Google overpaid to acquire Motorola in a last ditch effort to use the company’s semi-relevant patents to try to keep Android hardware alive. Meanwhile Samsung’s Galaxy S2 looks suspiciously similar to the iPhone 4. This means Apple can and will seek to get the Galaxy S2 banned. With precedent already set with the Tab rulings, the S2 could start disappearing from shelves just as the iPhone 5 starts populating them