By Ben Grubb
Samsung's highly-anticipated Galaxy tablet will not be available in Australia tomorrow despite a court order this week overturning a ban on the device's sale.
A Samsung executive said today it would not be possible to sell the device as soon as the ban was lifted at 4pm tomorrow because the electronics maker was not allowed to ship the tablet into the country until after that deadline.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
But he said Samsung was preparing for all scenarios so it could get the gadget on the shelves as quickly as possible, and would make a further announcement on pricing and availability tomorrow. It's understood many retailers have reaffirmed their commitment to Samsung to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 since this week's judgment.
"The way you can get product from one part of the world to another ... [there isn't] a huge issue on where it is from [from] the perspective of sending it to be on sale," said Samsung Australia vice president of telecommunications, Tyler McGee.
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"We can obviously move fairly quickly once we see what we can or cannot do."
The full bench of the Federal Court yesterday reversed an earlier judge's ruling in Apple's favour which blocked Samsung's tablet from going on sale in Australia
But sales of the Samsung tablet have been delayed because Apple was granted an extension of the ban for a further two days to allow it time to prepare a High Court appeal in the patent infringement case.
"From our perspective we're waiting to see what Apple's next step is in regards to [that High Court] process and we hope that we will prevail," Mr McGee said. Samsung had seen a "huge amount of demand from consumers wanting the device" and was "looking forward to the opportunity to provide the device to them", he said.
After the ruling, a senior law lecturer said he would be "astonished" if the High Court heard Apple's appeal.
Peter Black, IP law lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, said he doubted whether the High Court would grant Apple special leave to appeal the case, let alone grant a further ban on the tablet's sale, because the judgment did not raise a “novel question of law”.
"When the stay is lifted on Friday, Samsung will be free to sell their Galaxy Tab," he said.
More than 15,000 readers have voted in a poll on Fairfax websites over the past 24 hours, with nearly 11,000 saying they would buy the Samsung tablet when it is available.
Mr McGee said: "It just reaffirms our belief that we have a fantastic device in the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and we're very proud that there are consumers out there that have stood beside us in this long process and I look forward to being able to give them the opportunity to purchase the device and to use the device.”
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