A bitter pill to swallow
The presence or otherwise of Samsung mobile devices is something that can change instantly at the bang of a judge's gavel these days, so it's always interesting to see how easy it is to actually get hold of one.
To recap, Apple thinks Samsung has been ripping off its ideas in creating its Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablets. It has taken to the courts to air this grievance and, in lieu of the final judgments, has asked for preliminary injunctions against Samsung, to stop it marketing and selling the offending mobile devices.
Back in early August Apple convinced a German court to impose a Europe-wide injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. A subsequent appeal by Samsung queried the jurisdiction of the German court, and for now the injunction seems to apply to Germany only.
Evidence of this is clear around the web this week. Vodafone recently sent out a press release announcing stock of the Tab 10.1 at £499 for the 3G version, or £229 plus a £27, two year contract. They even created a video to promote it further.
Right now Vodafone - which also announced stock of the white Galaxy S II today - seems to be the only UK mobile operator to be offering the Tab 10.1, but there are plenty of other places to get both the Wi-Fi and 3G versions, including John Lewis and Argos.
Samsung still faces a lot of challenges from Apple. The next will be the ruling by a Dutch court against the Galaxy S II smartphone, which is due to come into effect in October. Samsung needs to find some way to circumvent that ruling in the next month or it won't be able to move its flagship smartphone through its European distribution hub.
