Re: Not easy
The head of the Android project admitted they basically had to start over once they saw the iPhone. It was first shown off in early 2007 and the first Android phone came out in late 2008. That's how long it took them to rework their 'smartphone with a keyboard like Blackberry' to be a 'smartphone with a touchscreen like iPhone'.
The idea that a 'rectangle with rounded corners' can be copied is of course ludicrous, what were they going to do make it oval (I shouldn't laugh, there were some phones sold in the mid-late 2000s that were oval just to distinguish themselves from the crowd) My beef is with the idea that if you beat someone to market by a few months that the follower copied you. You can't change the camera you're going to use in three months. In a year, sure you probably can do that.
Given the rumor mill industry and speculation surrounding future iPhones, and how big they are in terms of sales versus any one model of Android phone, if there were rumors that "iPhone 8 is going to include a FLIR sensor and laser distance measurement functionality" and an Android phone was introduced in summer 2018 with those features I'd argue they might have copied Apple even though they were first to market, because they may have added those features only because Apple was going to (assuming the rumors came true, of course)
BTW, there are no such rumors and while they would be cool to have those would obviously be niche functionality that wouldn't be worth adding to an mass market phone that sells 200 million units a year, but I could see those being worthy additions to a niche market Android phone - some extra durable model intended for contractors, home inspectors, realtors etc... That's the other thing about adding features - the Android phone market as a whole will always have more features than Apple because every phone sells in much smaller numbers than iPhone, and most sell in FAR smaller numbers. If it isn't something with mass appeal there's not a good reason to add it to iPhone, but adding a niche feature like turning your phone into a projector or adding a huge DSLR sized sensor makes sense for a few models of Android phones as those who need/want such features can seek them out without making the 98% of customers who don't want them bear the cost.