After over a year, Apple managed to obtain a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its home country.
Forgive me if the cork remains firmly lodged in my champagne bottle.
The 10.1 is a product in the last phase of a decidedly lackluster lifecycle, having been recently succeeded by the Galaxy Tab 2. Released to the undiscerning hordes in March of last year, the original Tab’s sales may have been “quite smooth” by Samsung’s accounts, but if you look at any of the analyst community’s accounting, sales were somewhere between “jack” and “shit”. This view is re-enforced by the amount of the bond Apple has to post – in case the injunction is overturned – to affect it: $2.6 million. If you take the $450 asking price, that’s less than 6,000 units. There were more iPads sold in the time it takes you to read this sentence.
You could make the argument that Apple’s win sets a precedent, but it’s not much of an argument. Samsung already designed around Apple’s IP to the satisfaction of the German courts with the 10.1N and the company has 3 other form factors (7″, 7.7″ and 8.9″), not to mention the pocket-busting 5.3″ Galaxy Note. It may get some traction with the 10.1″ Tab 2, but who knows how long round 2 of the Apple IP circlejerk will last.
So after a year of stalling, maneuvering, and more stalling, Samsung managed to keep its iPad knock-off on the U.S. market for over a year. Apple prevailed in the end, but only in the most Pyrrhic sense.
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