Yep, the A9 looks a lot like the iPhone. But HTC needs to get back on message as to why I should buy it and not quibble over 'copying.'

So maybe with the A9 — which, yes, sure looks a good bit like an iPhone — HTC is picking a fight. For sure it's got a lot of us who spill virtual ink over such things talking about HTC mid-cycle. And as Owen Williams at The Next Web rightly points out, picking this sort of fight gets your name in large type, without spending the sort of marketing dollars — and we're talking billions of dollars in the case of Samsung's overall marketing budget in previous years. And many millions reportedly spent on the GS6 alone this year. There's nothing inherently wrong with poking the bear, of course. Companies have been doing this to each other for years. Samsung. Apple. Microsoft. BlackBerry. Each one tweaks another on a fairly regular basis. Sometimes it stings, sometimes it's swing and a miss. But it's been happening for years, long before Android became the power that it is today.