First the court, now Samsung beating Apple in Australia’s mobile market

Fresh from beating Apple in the court room in Australia — after the ban on its Galaxy Tab was overturned earlier this month — Samsung has leapfrogged its rival to take the top spot in the country’s smartphone market, according to new data released by ABI Research today.
The Korean manufacturer now holds 49 percent of the smartphone market in Australia and 28.5 percent in New Zealand, which puts it ahead of rival Apple which holds 36 percent and 13 percent respectively. In New Zealand, Apple has even slipped into third place with Chinese manufacturer Huawei rising to 20 percent of the country’s smartphone market.
According to IDC, the popularity of the Samsung Galaxy range is responsible for the firm’s growth, while a rise in the availability of mid- and low- range Android devices is beginning to show, with Apple’s market share watered down as a result.
IDC analyst Yee-Kuan Lau explains in more detail:

There is a gradual shift in demand by cost-conscious consumers to low-cost Android smartphones from feature phones across [Australia and New Zealand], as more low cost smartphones are becoming available in the market.
In Australia for example, the shift in demand from feature phones has helped boost sales in the sub-US$150 segment with low-cost Android smartphones such as Huawei U8180 Ideos X1, especially when 90% of feature phones were priced below US$150.

The firm expects that Android will continue to pip Apple in Australia, whilst it foresees that the Google owned operating system will push out a strong lead in New Zealand too.
Australia and New Zealand are frequently analysed side-by-side, however their levels of smartphone usage vary considerably. Smartphones account for 65 percent of all mobile devices in Australia — making it one of the most developed markets on the planet — however, that figure drops down to 43 percent for its Antipodean neighbour.
Further proof that New Zealand’s market is a little further behind on the development curve is shown by the sheer growth of its mobile space. The industry posted 55 percent year on year growth in sales, that’s compared to a 17 percent shrinkage in handset shipments in Australia.
Samsung was recently strongly linked with overthrowing Nokia at the top of India’s smartphone rankings. In October, the firm posted its best ever year of sales, which were up by 300 percent, albeit with lower profits.

Read more »

ASUS Transformer Prime hitting Australian shelves in January

The ASUS Transformer Prime is said to be hitting the US before Christmas (December 19th?), but for Australian retailers – expect to see the device in early January of next year. The price is yet to be confirmed, but the Transformer Prime may end up seeing an instant OTA update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) due to the delayed release. In my opinion, this tablet is the best announced thus far for the year – so once updated to ICS, the best will just get better.

This news was gathered directly from an ASUS (Australia) tweet, so it’s official. We’re not sure the cause of the actual delay in the states to December 19th, but there had been rumors of WiFi issues. To give you a rundown on the tablet’s specifics, it will sport a 10.1-inch SuperIPS display and 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 Processor.

It’s the first quad-core tablet, and has some excellent benchmarks. The best feature by far, is the capability of to connect to the lapdock keyboard with the included touchpad. It’s finely tuned, and looks just like a laptop when clamped shut. And with 12 hours of video on a single battery charge, there’s not much this tablet doesn’t offer.

Read more »

Telstra Getting the Galaxy Nexus Tomorrow

Don’t look now, Verizon customers, but Telstra is set to offer their Australian consumers the Galaxy Nexus starting tomorrow. It will be in two of their flagship Melbourne stores as well as available online. Plans will start at $70 with three more options through $130. Be up bright and early to order online or to get to the locations listed at the source link. [Telstra, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Read more »

Apple loses final Australia appeal, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is ready for a retail return

Early news out of Australia indicates that Apple has lost its appeal of a decision made in an Australian federal court, dismissing their patent case against Samsung and its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. AusDroid reports that the decision came early Friday morning. The two companies have been locked in a legal battle for months, culminating in a rejection by an Australian Federal court after a long period of injunction against Samsung. The High Court denied the appeal, meaning that there is basically no way for them to continue with the case on its current merits.

The High Court chastised the original ruling granting a sales ban against the Samsung tablet, calling the judicial decision “replete with error” and saying that Apple won the original suit “by the skin of its teeth”. Android fans would agree, and this certainly puts a cramp on Apple’s worldwide crusade against Android and Samsung. Apple is still continuing its legal battle against the South Korean manufacturer in Germany.
Samsung issued the following statement after the news broke:

As the High Court has today rejected Apple’s leave to appeal, Samsung Electronics Australia is pleased to announce the highly anticipated Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 will be available in stores in time for the Christmas shopping period from a RRP of $579 (16GB WiFi variant) and a RRP of $729 (16GB 3G variant).
Samsung Electronics Australia is pleased with today’s judgment by the High Court of Australia to deny Apple’s request to appeal the decision of the Full Court.
The Full Court of Australia decision on November 30 clearly affirmed our view that Apple’s claims lack merit and that an injunction should not have been imposed on the GALAXY Tab 10.1.

The good news from Down Under follows a US Federal Court decision to reject Apple’s case against Samsung last week. In the United States, Apple failed to achieve a sales injunction, as the district court judge rules that the continued sales of Samsung’s tablets and phones did not damage Apple’s core iPad business. The decision is being appealed by Apple, and Samsung may still be liable for infringement of design patents, but it’s unlikely that a ban will be put into place. A leaked court document laid out some colorful requirements that Apple suggested to Samsung to avoid infringement, including non-symmetrical designs, thicker devices, and tablets that used shapes other than rectangles.
Apple’s fight continues in many territories, and with billions of dollars in reserves, they’re unlikely to be too discouraged. But with two major countries essentially rejecting Cupertino’s patent trolling, sanity seems to be returning to civil courtrooms worldwide.

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Tab ban extended in Australia

We had just received word two days ago that Samsung had prevailed over Apple from the Australian court ruling’s temporary ban. So much for that. It turns out court orders have banned the tablet another week from sale, more specifically until December 9th. The case remains open because the High Court of Australia was forced to extend the ban until it heard Apple’s special leave application.

It seems as if Apple is just prolonging the ban even though their leave application will be turned down; and if I were in their shoes I suppose I would do the same. Apple has probably thrown a ridiculous about of money towards this case and it would be foolish not to get the most out of it. The extension is most likely to delay Samsung’s tablet sales – and this late into the holiday season that means a lot.
I’m just ready to know the final outcome, and of course here at Android Community we’re rooting for Samsung! So many tablets have similar dimensions to the Apple iPad these days, and if they plan on going after all of them then they’ll just look silly. It’s obvious they picked Samsung to pick on because of their tablet’s success.
[via The Sydney Morning Herald]

Read more »

Apple beats Australian retailers into submission over Galaxy Tab sales

A while back we told you about independent Australian retailers refusing to honor the ruling from Apple’s civil case against Samsung. A small number of independent shops and websites skirted the sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 by importing them directly from China without buying them from Samsung first. Well it looks like Apple’s legal reach (not to mention gall) knows no bounds: the company has halted sales at all but one of the “rogue” retailers, in some cases using threatening letters to convince them of their position.

The Australian news site was only able to find one website that’s still selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 down under, Dmavo.com.au. The sales injunction bans Samsung from selling its tablets to retailers and directly to consumers, but retailers are free to find alternates sources of inventory, in this case, electronics shops in China and Taiwan. The rest of the independent stores that were selling the tablets have all decided to stop, likely to keep from risking a civil suit from Apple’s Australian arm.
Samsung is currently appealing the sales ban, but since the preliminary and primary injunctions made it through, that seems unlikely. Apple previously refused a settlement of undisclosed terms in the case, and after the details of the late Steve Jobs’ vitriolic rants against Android, it’s unlikely that they ever will. Samsung has retaliated by seeking a ban on iPhone 4S sales, and that particular case goes before a judge today.

Read more »

Samsung Appeals Australian Galaxy Tab Ban

Not that anyone thought they wouldn’t, Samsung has formally filed to appeal an Australian court’s decision to ban importation and sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the country. The ruling was made after Apple took its global patent war down under, making claims that Samsung has infringed on Apple’s product design. As part of their appeal, Samsung counsel Neil Young — not the guitar-weilding folk singer, though his penchant for standing against social injustice would be fitting in this case– argued that Justice Annabelle Bennet, the judge presiding over the original trial, made her decision based on “irrelevant considerations.” Samsung has been granted an appeal hearing, which is expected to begin the week of November 21st. Regardless of the final verdict, Samsung will likely miss any chance of delivering the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in time to make a big holiday splash.
[via Wall Street Journal]

Read more »

Aussie retailers skirt Apple injunction to sell Galaxy Tab 10.1

Apple won a major victory in its “thermonuclear war” with Android in Australia, where the civil court upheld a sales injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab based on Apple’s practical and design patents. But the courts are no obstacle for the determined, and a collection of crafty online retailers are still selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 down under. Like Prohibition smugglers they get their stock from outside the continent and sell the tablets as import items, exploiting a loophole in Australian law.

Naturally Apple isn’t happy. The American company has forwarded copies of the injunction to eTail Solutions and and MobiCity, two of the online shops currently selling the contraband tablets. Other retailers currently offering the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to underserved Aussies include import specialist Expansys, Techrific, dMavo and eBay, though not all of these have been contacted by Apple. According to an eTail Solutions manager, to stop the sales Apple would have to also win an injunction against Samsung where the tablets are being imported from, in this case, Hong Kong.
Retailers are still prohibited from purchasing the tablets directly from Samsung, but Samsung is trying to overrule the courts’ ruling with an appeal. If that fails there isn’t a whole lot Samsung can do, since Apple has flat-out denied any sort of appeal. Similar cases between Apple and Samsung are being waged all over the world, with troubling developments here in the United States as the circuit judge in charge of the case declared Samsung in violation of some of Apple’s technical patents.

Read more »

Samsung attempts to get iPhone 4S banned in Japan and Australia

We all know that Apple has been all over Samsung’s case over the past few months, requesting for preliminary injunctions to block sales of Samsung’s devices in countries all over the world. In retribution, Samsung has been doing the same thing as well, albeit with less success. The Korean electronics manufacturer has recently announced that it is attempting to get sales of the iPhone 4S banned in two more countries: Japan and Australia.

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Note coming to Australia in early 2012

While the land down under isn’t getting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 any time soon, Australian citizens can be glad that they’re getting the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note. Early tomorrow (or in U.S. terms, late tonight) Samsung announced plans to distribute the jumbo smartphone there in “early 2012.” Australia is only the second market confirmed to get the flagship device.


The Samsung Galaxy Note was announced at IFA in Berlin. It’s a 2.3 Gingerbread phone that shares a lot of characteristics with the best-selling Galaxy S II – except in a couple of key areas. Those areas are a massive 5.3-inch screen pushing 1280 x 800 pixels out of a Super AMOLED+ panel and a beefed-up 1.4GHz dual-core processor. The Galaxy Note also features a capacitive stylus and custom software to take advantage of the pen-style input.
Samsung and Apple are still in a bitter patent battle over the former’s tablet designs, culminating in Apple refusing to accept a settlement on Tuesday. This is only the latest in a long line of patent battles spanning the globe, but so far, Apple has shown no intention of blocking sales of the Galaxy Note specifically. UK consumers will get their hands on the Samsung Galaxy note in November, and US residents may not be far behind.

Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Gets Australian Victory, Apple Told by Judge to Provide Proof

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 inch Android Tablet may benefit from a long entrenched Apple Computing unwritten law to never reveal sales numbers unless absolutely necessary. Samsung’s latest tablet has been banned for sale in Germany until claims by Apple that Samsung infringed on their copyrights can be proved or disproved. A September 9 date for the final ruling by the Judge in Germany is set. Recently, Apple sued Samsung in Australia as well with the same claims that the design and physical appearance of the Apple iPad 2 Tablet were copied by Samsung for their thin, lightweight 10.1 Tablet.
Don Reisinger of CNET.com reported that Apple is now being ordered by Australia’s federal court Judge Annabelle Bennett to show proof that the similarities in design have hurt the sales of the Apple iPad 2, which is what Apple claims. She also released a statement claiming that Apple is not presenting enough compelling evidence to allow for an injunction in Australia. Samsung has voluntarily removed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablet PC from the marketplace as a sign of good faith, and it appears this goodwill gesture has paid off favorably. The Judge is requesting sales data to back up Apple’s claims.
Not only filing for injunctions and downright banning of the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany and Australia alone, Apple has sought injunctions against their number one Tablet PC competitor in several countries and nations. Samsung has been very forthcoming with sales figures, documentation and even physical Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablets which they gave Apple for them to inspect. Samsung even agreed to sell whichever tablet Apple accepted out of the three offered. Apple has made no decision as of yet.
Samsung has claimed that their research shows that Apple’s sales have not been hurt in the least since the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and that caused Judge Bennett to request provable sales losses by Apple. Stopping short of forcing Apple to give up this sensitive information, Judge Bennett simply stated that if Apple wants their injunction investigation to move forward, they would have to make the information available to her.
Apple has over the years been very stingy with allowing any type of numbers to be attached to the sales or speculation of sales of their popular iDevices. After their recent third-quarter declaration that they sold 9.2 5 million iPads in that time period, it may be hard for Apple to prove that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is actually hurting sales.

Read more »