Samsung may have won its case against Apple and the right to offer its Galaxy Tab in Australia, but experts say the battle isn’t over yet and it may be premature to declare a winner.
The warning comes after the Federal Court declared that Samsung was able to sell its Galaxy Tab despite Apple claiming a number of patent infringements. The Korean tech giant is now able to begin selling the product from tomorrow.
However, Telsyte analyst Foad Fadaghi says it is reasonable to assume that further legal action may continue in the High Court, where Apple must appeal if it wants to stop its rival from selling the Galaxy Tab in Australia.
“Any celebration might be a little premature,” he told SmartCompany. “We’ll have to wait and see what transpires in the High Court.”
“The biggest challenge, I feel, is that there are a number of products competing with the iPad now that have come down in price significantly.”
Although an injunction was set down in October, judges Lindsay Foster, John Dowsett and David Yates said in their judgement that Samsung should be able to sell the device while the debate over its legitimacy is fully heard.
“In circumstances where Apple’s claims of infringement of its patents have not yet been fixed for final hearing and where such a final hearing is not likely to take place before the middle of 2012, at the earliest, the interlocutory injunctions granted by the primary judge have the practical effect of killing off the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia.”
Apple has already sought leave to appeal to the High Court. But Fadaghi points out this is just one case out of many – there are similar injunctions being sought in Britain, the United States, Germany and South Korea.
As a result, he says results in other countries may have an impact on what happens here. “We anticipated this would need a global resolution before it could be sorted out locally,” he says.
But there’s another element to the argument that Samsung will enjoy a good Christmas this year. Fadaghi says the tablet market has changed a lot in the past few months with several discounted products, and the company may find it harder to compete.
“We’ve seen other tablets come down in price, like the Motorola Xoom, and the Playbook. Regardless of whether the Samsung tablet is available, the market is extremely competitive right now.”
“A full priced Galaxy Tab may still find the market challenging with regard to some of its discounted competition. There’s a lot more going on in the market right now, and it’s more complicated than just Apple versus Samsung.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
