That's already happening. Google, MS, Apple, IBM, Intel, AMD/ATI, nVidia, AT&T and a few others already have cross-licensing deals essentially between everyone and everyone. It's just that HTC and Samsung are not part of _this_ cartel.
That's essentially the situation in hardware. All the big players have portfolios of patents which they swap in cross-licensing deals. As a newcomer you have no chance of breaking into the business since you don't have a portfolio of your own - you'd get sued out of business.
