I think the point to take away from this is that the similarities in design between the iPhone/iPad and their competitors has a lot to do with the fact that really all they are is 1 big screen, and their current designs are the logical design for them. There's really not too much you can do to differentiate other than put your logo on it, change the buttons, change the back, make it bigger, make it square, and Samsung did all except the last one.

I won't doubt that their design job was made easier by the iPhones existence, but I don't think they set out to intentionally trick users into thinking it was an iPhone/iPad.