Is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 dead in Australia? According to various news reports, Apple and Samsung have not reached a patent deal that would permit the sale of the tablet, which might prompt Samsung to ditch plans for an Australian release.
Bloomberg reports that Samsung needs the court's permission to start selling the tablet in the next two weeks in order to take advantage of the lucrative holiday season. Failing that, it might abandon plans to sell the tablet in Australia altogether.
On Tuesday, however, a Sydney judge failed to provide a date for when she might rule on the patent dispute, the Wall Street Journal said.
The news comes about a week after Samsung reportedly offered Apple a deal that would allow the company to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. Details of that plan were not released, but at the time, an Apple attorney told Dow Jones Newswires that if the deal goes through, Samsung's "inconvenience would be diminished and we would be comforted."
The Journal said Tuesday, however, that the two sides failed to agree on the terms of that deal. Apple, meanwhile, said it was "no more than a tactic to maximize the chances of Samsung launching what we would contend is an infringing product."
The news comes several days after Apple temporarily excluded two of five patent claims against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. The two dropped patents covered the use of a slider icon that unlocked the tablet's touch screen as well an icon that bounced when zooming.
In August, Samsung volunteered not to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia any earlier than September 30, even though it was scheduled to launch on September 12. That came after Apple convinced a judge to delay Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch, claiming the tablet infringed on various elements of the Apple iPad 2. At the time Samsung's Australian counsel said Apple was basing its claims on the U.S. model, and Samsung agreed to hand to Apple several models of the Australian prototype.
Samsung and Apple, however, are battling over patents in almost two dozen countries, and Apple has already succeeded in getting the Galaxy Tab temporarily banned in Germany. Recently, Samsung sued Apple in France and the Netherlands, and the Korean company is reportedly preparing to sue Apple for infringing wireless patents in the iPhone 5, even though it probably won't be unveiled until later today.
The patent dispute between Apple and Samsung began in April, when Apple sued Samsung for copying the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad in its flagship Galaxy S line of devices; a suit that was later expanded to include 13 more products, including the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Nexus S 4G, and the Droid Charge.
For more, see Every Place Samsung and Apple Are Suing Each Other (as of Sept. 14).
All this comes as Samsung releases its Galaxy S II smartphone in the United States. For more, see PCMag's hands on and the slideshow below.