More broadly, the fact that any company can demand protection for the basic shape of a device, years before it had invented the actual device or technology, should not entitle that company to claim that it had patented the design for a smartphone any more than Richard Branson can patent business class travel in outer space.
One of the lawyers bringing a class action suit against Google alleges that the company filed a patent for using the sort of payload data it collected, proving that this was no accident.
Bottom line, world-class companies woke up and realized that it was just a whole lot easier to work with patent licensing companies like Acacia than to wage constant battle.