In continuation to the infamous Apple-Samsung war, Apple has now requested a ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the US, citing patent infringement reasons. In the past, Samsung had been accused by Apple over destruction of evidence involved in the patent infringement case it had filed in the past. Reasons for Apple to take such a decision include the surprisingly similar look and feel of Samsung devices to Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
This news comes after settlement talks were announced to have kicked off between Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung on Monday (21 May, 2012). The news may bring rain clouds over the meeting.
Samsung has been given time till 25 May, 2012 to respond to this appeal. Not surprisingly, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was also facing a similar ban in Germany, which Samsung sorted by tweaking the device slightly to comply with Apple’s demands. Also, a very similar case has been noticed in the recent past when Apple had HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE handsets halt at the US border as per an agreement by the International Trade Council (ITC) where HTC would have to comply with certain standards imposed by Apple (related, again, to patent infringement issues). This issue has been sorted and the banned HTC devices have started making their way inside the States.
It can be safely assumed that Apple is threatened by Samsung’s booming success, and so it naturally wants to suppress the sales of the Tab, though Apple still seems to be sitting on the market’s throne when it comes to tablet computers. Perhaps recent loss of considerable market share has led to Apple being shaken, and this it stands its guard fiercely (especially after Samsung stole the mobile phone market).
The only questions now are: will there ever be an end to this bitter power struggle? Will the meeting between the CEOs take care of the knots?
Only time will tell!
Source: iMore