Apple gets Samsung to delay tablet one more time

Apple on Sunday managed to get a second Australian delay for the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Samsung had been set to ship the Android tablet to the country September 12 after the original delay but agreed to move it back to September 30, almost a month after originally planned. The company dropped its objections after Federal Court Judge Annabelle Bennett had said it would only make sense to wait until a hearing due in the last week of September that would determine whether a preliminary injunction would be upheld.

The original agreement not to sell in Australia had been based on the US version of the Tab 10.1 with a view to the Australian version being different. At the time, it wasn't clear what that would be, although it's now likely that the Australian tablet is shipping with the custom TouchWiz interface preloaded. In an attempt to jab Samsung in court, Apple's attorney Steve Burley claimed that the changes reflected "reduced functionality." Samsung denied this and accused Apple of trying to advertise itself even in a courtroom.

Samsung faces an uphill battle in denying Apple's requests for preliminary product bans across the world. In Australia, it was already warned it could be on the losing side of the dispute. Apple also recently sustained a German ban and won a Dutch ban on phones. Any US action won't be possible until October, but Apple has already managed to move a trial schedule up and reduce Samsung's chances at a defense.

Much of Samsung's current defense has had limited success, with accusations of distorted visual evidence doing little in Germany. It has taken the unusual tactic of citing Stanley Kubrick's 2001 as prior art and otherwise trying to portray the iPad and Galaxy Tab designs as obvious.

By Electronista Staff