The advancements that we’ve seen in smartphones in the last few years have many of us wondering how we even handled car phones or the bag phones of the 1980s. Having a phone that only makes calls? Nonsense. Why would we have ever created such a simple piece of technology.

Smart phones nowadays can manage our lives, entertain us for hours, and even guide the way when we are lost. They come fully equipped with HD displays, excellent 8 MP cameras, and apps that can do nearly everything.

It used to be that Apple was the industry leader. The iPhone was untouchable by other smart phone creators. However, in the last year, HTC and Samsung have released some of the most advanced smart phones on the market. Leading many to wonder if remaining loyal to Apple was even necessary. Samsung’s Galaxy S2 was even dubbed “the best smart phone on the market” upon its release.

Samsung was ecstatic; Apple immediately filed suit.

And now Samsung intends to return the favor by immediately suing Apple upon the release of the iPhone 5. Because Apple was able to successfully ban the sale of certain Samsung Galaxy devices in multiple countries, Samsung hopes to do the same with the iPhone 5 – even if they are only successful with postponing the sale of the smart phone in Korea. Limiting those sales alone would actually be highly detrimental to Apple.

So for those who were excited to get the latest Apple product to complete their perfect device sync of their computer networking systems, they may just have to wait for the iPhone 5. If Samsung is successful, the much anticipated release of the long overdue iPhone could be postponed. However, this most likely will not be the case in the States.

“For as long as Apple does not drop mobile telecommunications functions, it would be impossible for it to sell its i-branded products without using our patents,” stated a Samsung senior executive. “We will stick to a strong stance against Apple during the lingering legal fights.”

While the fighting between Samsung and Apple is not likely to cease anytime soon, they may want to watch where they are placing all of their energy. While these two smart phone giants are bickering, HTC, another industry leader, is silently gaining ground. It just may be that while Apple and Samsung continue to damage and limit each other, that HTC may come out as the industry leader – in a fashion that is ever so indicative of their slogan “quietly brilliant.”

Guest Post Contributor: Vanessa Burke