Samsung may cancel Australian Galaxy Tab launch after Apple rejects settlement offer

Samsung may scrap long-made plans to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia after Apple rejected an offer to settle the dispute between the two companies.

Apple and Samsung have been fighting in courts around the world since April, when Apple sued Samsung in the U.S. for “slavishly” copying the designs of the iPhone and iPad. The battle made its way all the way to Australia at the beginning of August when Apple won a ruling to block sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on patent infringement grounds. Samsung agreed to stop advertising and launching the tablet until the lawsuit was settled.

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Apple has rejected every offer to settle, including one made last week, which keeps the Galaxy Tab 10.1 off shelves. Samsung’s stance is that if the Galaxy Tab can’t be sold this holiday season, then there is effectively no reason to launch the product at all.

Technology evolves at such a pace that trying to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in 2012 would be pointless. The Tab 10.1 was launched in mid-June in the U.S. and its main competition, the iPad 2, was launched in January 2011.

In terms of future competition, the iPad 3 is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2012 with better hardware, including a higher-resolution screen, and Samsung is most likely building a better version of the Tab to launch in 2012 to compete with the iPad 3. On top of Apple, Samsung also has to contend with the new $199 Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, which will provide a strong low-cost alternative for media tablets.

Do you think Samsung’s tablet ambitions in Australia are over? Do you think Apple is playing fair?