Sub-prime
Oh dear, the Samsung Android situation grows ever more chaotic. Not apparently content with the disruption caused to any Samsung Android launches by Apple's lawyers, Samsung and Google have opted to further complicate things all by themselves.
They were due to launch a new device, generally expected to be the Ice Cream Sandwich reference device called Nexus Prime, at a special Samsung Unpacked event coinciding with a CTIA show on 11 October. They even released a teaser video on YouTube.
But something's thrown a major spanner in the works, and prompted this statement from Samsung: "Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced."
Hmm, they're not giving us much to go on regarding the reason for this last-minute cancellation of a major launch event. But tech journalists abhor vacuums even more than nature does, so let's blindly speculate shall we?
The clear inference from ‘it is just not the right time' is that this is a mark of respect for the passing of former Apple boss Steve Jobs, and if that's the case fair enough - it's their call. But you have to wonder if there are more pragmatic reasons behind the postponement.
We're assuming that Apple's lawyers, while no less moved by the death of the great man, have decided it should be business as usual work wise. As soon as Apple launched the iPhone 4S Samsung announced it was seeking injunctions against it in France and Italy. This was announced before Jobs died, but it's easy to believe they would have gone ahead regardless.
It stands to reason that Apple's lawyers were in the starting blocks, just waiting for the launch on the 11th before bombarding Samsung with every bit of legal ammo at their disposal. Maybe Samsung and Google caught wind of the nature of this assault and decided that, in this case, the better part of valor is discretion.
Apart from some kind of Apple-related reason, and even more worrying for Samsung and Google, is the possibility that there have been some last-minute hitches for either the handset or the new version of Android. We may never know, but the longer they leave it to announce the new date, the more dodgy this will look.
