Samsung Australia's mobile Chief says that far from killing its Galaxy Tab 10.1, Apple's court case was almost a blessing in disguise that made the product a "household name".Samsung's tablet will arrive in stores this week after a Sydney court on Friday denied Apple's request to appeal to the High Court an earlier ruling that reversed the ban on sales of the Galaxy Tab.
Some carriers such as Vodafone have already been accepting pre-orders.
Some carriers such as Vodafone have already been accepting pre-orders.
This is a particularly busy week for Samsung as today its new flagship smartphone, theGalaxy Nexus, hits stores via all carriers.
The phone is the first to use the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google's Android, which has a more polished interface and offers new features such as the ability to use facial recognition to unlock the phone and a tool called "beam", which uses the built-in near-field communication (NFC) chip to allow people to instantly exchange apps, Web pages and other content by tapping their Galaxy Nexus phones together.
In an interview today Samsung Australia's Vice-president of Telecommunications, Tyler McGee, would not say how many sales Samsung missed out on as a result of Apple's temporary ban on the Galaxy Tab.
But when asked whether the court action – which Apple launched after claiming Samsung "slavishly copied" its iPad – was the best marketing Samsung could hope for, McGee was under no illusions about the boost Apple's case, and the subsequent media coverage, provided.
"At the end of the day the media awareness certainly made the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a household name compared to probably what it would've been based on the investment that we would've put into it from a marketing perspective," he said.
Asked how many units of the Galaxy Tab Samsung was bringing in, McGee said:
"As many units as we can" but warned "there will probably be short supply against the demand".
Foad Fadaghi, telecommunications analyst with Telsyte, said while the coverage of the case highlighted the plight of iPad competitors, he did not believe that awareness would directly translate to sales.
"Consumers will be evaluating the usefulness of devices on a case-by-case basis, in particular comparing prices," said Fadaghi. "The Galaxy Tab is a premium pricedAndroid tablet, and as others in that space have found out, consumers have been reluctant to pay the same price as the iPad for Android tablets."
But Fadaghi still believes that Samsung will be the number two player in the tablet market after Apple.
McGee said the Australian version of the Galaxy Tab was not a hobbled or cut-down device, as many feared it would be due to Apple's patent infringement claims.
"If you look at the specs of the device they're identical to the global device that's available out there," he said.
McGee said that a 7.7" version of the Galaxy Tab would be in the marketplace by the end of the year and an 8.9" version would be on sale in the first quarter of next year.
Google's Android platform accounts for 55% of the smartphone market in Australia and McGee said Samsung was the clear Android leader, with a share twice as big as its nearest Androidcompetitor.
This is largely due to popular devices like the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone.
This is largely due to popular devices like the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone.
"In August this year we became the number one overall brand in mobile phones in Australia and also the number one brand in smartphones," McGee said.
Fadaghi said the Galaxy Nexus, which offers a large 4.65" HD Super AMOLED display (the Apple's iPhone 4 screen is 3.5"), was "a giant move by Google and its Android Operating System".
"Telsyte anticipate strong interest in the device but whether it wins over iPhone users is questionable," said Fadaghi. "It's likely to attract Android buyers, or those upgrading from older Androids. It's likely to cannibalise both Galaxy SII sales, and provide strong competition against the premium HTC devices and the iPhone 4S."
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