Yesterday we told you that Apple and Samsung would have arrived to an understanding by which the Asian company would have obliged not to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet on the Australian continent. Today, Samsung comes with a clarification and informs us that it has not concluded any kind of agreement with Apple regarding blocking the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia, but an agreement in this sense has been concluded with regard to the USA. In practice, Samsung would have agreed with Apple not to promote and sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US until part of the legal disputes between the 2 companies are concluded.
Samsung has denied that the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is on hold in Australia, clarifying that the company's agreement with Apple only covers the US version of the tablet. According to Samsung's official statement, the original Apple complaint covered "a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 variant that Samsung Electronics had no plans of selling in Australia." The Korean company says that, as indicated in reports yesterday, the settlement between it and Apple was "a mutual agreement" rather than a court injunction. That agreement only concerns the contentious US version of the slate, whereas the Australian variant is presumably different so as to avoid infringing Apple patents.
So Apple managed to convince Samsung to stop selling the US version of the Galaxy Tab in probably the company's biggest market. It will be interesting to see how the two companies will come to an understanding, considering that Samsung is renouncing substantial payments through this agreement concluded with Apple. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see what the American courts will decide regarding the lawsuits between the 2 companies and if Apple is declared the winner then Samsung could have big problems with the Galaxy line.
