Samsung Electronics Co. and Google Inc. agreed to delay the announcement of a new mobile-phone product following the death of Apple Inc.’s former chief executive, Steve Jobs, the Seoul-based electronics giant said Saturday.
“We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing,” Samsung’s spokeswoman Chenny Kim said.
Samsung was set to introduce the new mobile phone to the public during an event in San Diego on Oct. 11. The new date and the venue for the delayed announcement have yet to be decided, it said.
Samsung is currently engaged in a legal battle with Apple in which both companies are seeking to block sales of each others’ smartphones and tablet computers. A verdict is expected next week in Australia on whether Apple will win a temporary sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, while hearings are also scheduled in the U.S. and the Netherlands in the patent dispute.
Samsung is the world’s second-largest handset vendor after Nokia Corp., but Apple led world sales of smartphones in the second quarter, shipping 20.3 million units. Samsung shipped 19.6 million. Samsung likely passed Apple in the third quarter as the Korean company ramped up sales of its flagship Galaxy S II smartphone, unveiled in April, and the iPhone’s growth likely leveled off as consumers awaited the new model, introduced Tuesday.
[WSJ]Â
