It seems that Samsung is all about the design at the moment. After delighting the Asian market with the introduction of the extremely thin Galaxy A8 last week, the South Korean company has now offered the same level of attention to a new set of tablet devices. The unveiling of the Galaxy Tab S2, which replaces last year's Tab S, represents Samsung's thinnest tablet devices in the history of the company and even offer a sleeker profile than that of Apple's thinnest iPad, the iPad Air 2.
Samsung was solely responsible for creating the "phablet" genre of mobile devices when it announced the original Galaxy Note at IFA Berlin in 2011. A device that combined the large screen of a tablet with the traditional functionality of a smartphone seemed like a great idea at the time; and even worked extremely well in practice thanks to the execution of the idea with the Galaxy Note series. However, it seems that Samsung simply isn’t happy with the state of the phablet market and have taken things to the next ridiculous level by launching a 7-inch device that it expects consumers to make and receive voice calls on.
It was only yesterday when a United Kingdom based court of appeals took the decision to reprimand Apple for their failure to act in proper accordance with an original judgment in October that stated they must issue an apology to Samsung Electronics through their customer facing UK website. Although the company has removed the initial linked statement from their website and are yet to publish the new homepage based announcement, they have started publishing the notice in UK print publications.
It was only a matter of time before a UK court of appeal got involved and ruled that Apple's apologetic statement to Samsung on their UK customer facing website didn't comply with the original ruling.
There hasn’t been much news coming out of San Jose in the last few days, but that doesn't mean that the Apple vs. Samsung case isn't still bubbling away like a hot cauldron behind those large doors that stand so proudly in front of Judge Lucy Koh's courtroom. Apple has already had their turn in the legal spotlight with their appointed counsel presenting the fundamentals of their case to the judge and overseeing jury, and now it's time for Samsung's legal eagles to step into the limelight, it seems that they are taking a rather bizarre approach to defending themselves.
There are many companies embattled in a quest to gain the largest market share in both the tablet and smartphone markets, and the recent court cases between Apple and Samsung has offered us a strong indication as to the inner workings of the firms locked in the fight for supremacy. Internal documents have been leaked to the San Jose case revealing much about the practices of both companies, while some of the big cheeses of both electronic outfits have leapt from obscurity to make their feelings known.
When it comes to impending court cases that center around multiple alleged technology patent infringements, I am not sure that momentum actually accounts for anything, but if there is a slight chance that fortune favors those currently on top then Apple should be heading into next month’s trial feeling pretty confident about their chances. After leaving some local court houses in the United States with an interim sales ban on certain Samsung devices, Apple dealt with a relatively small blow in the U.K. when they were told to publicly retract any claim that Samsung had copied the design of the iPad.
Although it has been recently reported that current Apple CEO Tim Cook has been meeting with Samsung executives to discuss the ongoing patent battles which are becoming laborious to both sides, it seems that it hasn't stopped the disputes from hitting the courts once again. In a United States appeals court, Samsung again had to experience defeat as a judge has seen no reason to overturn a sales ban relating to their Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
The Apple versus Samsung dispute is not an isolated incident, and the continual court dates are occurring across the world as we speak. The Galaxy Tab, not really making too much of an imprint on the tablet market, has been banned from selling in numerous nations following court hearings with Apple, but in the United Kingdom, the law has decided the Galaxy Tab 7.7, Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 are not in breach of any Apple patents, and can continue retailing alongside the iPad.
The ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung has really come a long way and has slipped thoroughly into the wilderness. It wasn't that long ago when both companies found themselves in the news in an ongoing dispute over individual registered patents, with judges in certain European countries ruling on whether or not those patents had been infringed upon.