"In a number of cases, Microsoft's market share in a given space has grown not because of anything the Softies did proactively, but because of its rivals' missteps," she adds.

Others, though, are more inclined to rain on Microsoft's parade. "Microsoft probably wouldn't be affected much because it's not a major player in this marketplace right now," David Mixon, a patent attorney with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Birmingham, Alabama, tells PCWorld.

Rather than help Microsoft, the Samsung verdict will likely lead to more lawsuits and further uncertainty in the market, maintains Mike Cherry, a Windows analyst with Directions On Microsoft in Kirkland, Washington.

"If you look at the mobile market right now, everybody is suing everybody," he explains to PCWorld. "As a result of this thing [Apple-Samsung trial], I don't think it's going to reduce very many of those lawsuits, but it's probably going to give them more ammunition to go after others."

He notes that if the verdict threatens Android, Google's mobile operating system used on Samsung's hardware, then the search giant, which has been on the sidelines during the infringement trial, must enter the game with the portfolio of mobility patents it obtained when it for $12.5 billion earlier this year.