Lawyers, it seems, don’t have to clear the things they say to judges with the corporate PR department. So it is that in the Apple vs Samsung hearing in the Federal Court in Sydney yesterday, Apple in effect told the court its iPad is too lame to withstand competition.

If that statement sounds a little strong, here’s what Apple’s lead barrister, Stephen Burley, said: "Once the Galaxy Tab goes to a purchaser who invests and purchases apps on the Galaxy Tab, we have lost them forever in relation to apps and interactivity because they will then be Android people."

Apple, in other words, believes any non-Apple sale represents a customer lost forever – someone buying the Galaxy 10.1 would never see a reason to buy an iPad. That’s a remarkable statement coming from a company that’s estimated to own on the plus side of 75 percent of the Australian tablet market and as much as one-third of the total mobile computing market in this country.

Cupertino may have a point: according to figures released yesterday by IDC, Android devices are surging in Australia and New Zealand. Apple's 75 percent share of shipments in Q2 is a fall from the 83 percent of shipments Cupertino enjoyed in Q1, and IDC is predicting a fall to 70 percent by year-end.

Apple’s concerns underline the reason it’s so keen to forestall competition in the tablet market: its strategy to wrap up the customer in a nice warm Apple-controlled ecosystem slips the instant any customer buys from anybody else.

Local journalists were surprised when Apple’s Richard Lutton, once head honcho of patent lawyering, was called by the judge. They shouldn’t have been: the fact that he was available to be called means that Apple had already notified the court that he would be present and would testify. Exactly what Lutton had to say is largely confidential, with the media and the public excluded from the court for his testimony.
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Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australien: “Wie eine Flutwelle”

Zum Beispiel Annabelle Bennett, Richterin am Bundesgericht in Sydney, Australien. Sie muss darüber entscheiden, ob das Galaxy Tab 10.1 “down under” verkauft werden darf, oder ob es einer einstweiligen Verfügung bis zum Hauptsacheverfahren gegen Ende des Jahres bedarf. Diese würde den Verkauf vorläufig untersagen, bis die Frage nach Recht oder Unrecht endgültig geklärt ist.

Jetzt bringt Apple als Argument für eine solche zeitweilige Intervention der Richterin das Argument: Das Galaxy Tab 10.1 ist dasjenige Produkt, das dem iPad 2 am gefährlichsten werden kann. “Es wird den Markt wie eine Flutwelle überschwemmen und die iPad-2-Verkäufe so schnell abschöpfen, dass Apple bis zum Hauptsacheverfahren schwere Nachteile und Samsung große Vorteile hätte”, so die Anwälte für Cupertino laut The Syndey Morning Herald.

Dagegen führt das Unternehmen aus Südkorea ins Feld, dass ihr Tablet hauptsächlich mit anderen Android-Geräten konkurriere, nicht aber mit iOS-Tablets. Die Plattform sei das Merkmal, für oder gegen das Kunden sich entscheiden, nicht aber einzelne Geräte. Auch Apple argumentiert Inhalts-orientiert.
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Apple fears the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will launch on to the market "with the velocity of a fire hose" and "take away iPad 2 sales so quickly" that customers may be permanently "seduced" away from Apple's iOS platform, its lawyers told the Federal Court in Sydney today.
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Responding to questions from Justice Bennett about whether Samsung's model could be singled out, given there are other Android-based tablets on the market, Apple's lawyers said it saw the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as the main competitor to the iPad 2.

"This is vastly the one that is going to be targeting the iPad 2," Apple's counsel said.

"This is going to be launched on the market with the velocity of a fire hose and [the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is] going to just come in and take away iPad 2 sales so quickly that by the time we get to final hearing the full impact of the patent infringement will be [felt] to the detriment of Apple and to the benefit of [Samsung]."

Samsung has requested sales data showing the effect Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales have had on iPad 2 sales in other countries. Apple has refused and Justice Bennett has sided with Apple.

Analyst firm Gartner and other analysts have recently said that the iPad 2 would take the lion's share of tablet sales globally for some time to come despite the presence of other tablets such as Samsung's.

The comments by Apple in court come as research firm IDC today said that tablet shipments to Australia and New Zealand doubled in Q2 from the previous quarter, with 420,000 units shipped. Australia contributed 87.5 per cent of the total shipments, while the rest went to New Zealand. IDC said the doubling was driven by multiple launches of Android-based devices similar to Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Samsung argues that its tablet will be largely competing with other Android-based models and that consumers would be deciding whether they wanted Apple's iOS or Android, rather than deciding by comparing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with the iPad 2.

"People will choose either to stick to Apple because you like Apple and you like the operating system and you like the link to iTunes and so on. Or you want a completely different system and you'll move in the direction of Android," Samsung's lawyer said.

Apple disputes this, arguing the Galaxy Tab will only get market share by taking share away from Apple and that other Android competitors from brands such as Motorola and Acer were irrelevant.

Justice Bennett said the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would compete with both iPad 2 and Android. "It must be that the initial competitor will be Apple and then there will also be competition within the Android system between the Android players," she said.

Apple also raised concerns that every Galaxy Tab sold would cost it future app sales as the users would become "Android people". Apple's iTunes App Store dominance would be challenged if customers were "seduced" or "sapped away by the Galaxy Tab and its infringements".

"They'll then be Android people and the investment in the apps that they make to purchase on their Galaxy Tab will be something they can't use on an Apple product," Apple's lawyer said.

The case has now been narrowed to concern two Apple patents. Samsung has filed a separate cross-claim accusing Apple of infringing several of its own patents.

Samsung's lawyers have criticised the fact that Apple did not seek injunctions against previous Samsung products that would by their logic also infringe its patents. Apple's response to this was that, because Samsung is a significant supplier to Apple, it "engaged in negotiations in the first instance".

"We're not the first Android on the market and other people are getting in fast. It's critical that we're a first mover not dribble in behind everybody else. It's blossoming at the moment," Samsung's lawyer said.
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Dich schon;-)

Dich offensichtlich auch, sonst hättest Du den Thread wohl nicht geöffnet.

MacMark
Warum diskutierst Du mit Chill über gesehene (oder nicht gesehene) Tablets in öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln?
Reichen denn nicht die weltweiten Verkaufszahlen und der Marktanteil um eine eigentlich eindeutige Aussage zu treffen.

In hopes of launching its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia next week, Samsung has offered Apple a mystery deal that the iPhone maker admitted has favorable benefits to both sides.

Samsung is pushing to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia as soon as possible so it doesn't miss out on the holiday buying season, but sales of the device have been held up by a court injunction. Now, Samsung has attempted to smooth things over behind the scenes, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"It wasn't clear what Apple would gain from any agreement, as details of the proposed deal were not discussed in full in front of the court," the report said.

"But Apple's attorney, Stephen Burley, conceded there was some potential benefit from an agreement on the matter. '(Samsung's) inconvenience would be diminished and we would be comforted' by such a deal, he said."

While the proposed deal would not entirely resolve the dispute between Apple and Samsung, in which Samsung has been accused of copying the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad, a truce between the two companies could allow the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to go on sale.
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