Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 pulled from IFA floor after injunction

By Geoff Duncan September 5, 2011

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

This week’s IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin is one of the top places for manufacturers to showcase technology as they gear up for the end-of-year holiday buying season—and now Samsung isn’t able to show off what it hoped would be one of its hot products. The South Korean electronics giant has been forced to remove demonstration units of its Galaxy Tab 7.7 Android tablet from the show floor as Apple got a second injunction barring sales and marketing of the product in Germany. Numerous reports from the show floor note that while the tablet was initially on display and labeled “not for sale in Germany,” the sample units and all mention of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 have been removed from Samsung’s exhibits.

The move follows a German court upholding a ban on the sale and marketing of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany late last month. Apple claims the Galaxy Tab tablets are essentially copies of its popular iPad line; Samsung denies the charges. Apple is pursuing the matter across several jurisdictions, including South Korea and the United States.

Bloomberg quotes a Seoul-based spokesperson for Samsung as saying the company respects the court’s decision although it believes the ruling “several limits consumer choice in Germany.” The spokesperson indicated Samsung intends to continue pursuing the case.

Apple has not commented on the matter.

The withdrawal of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 demonstration models increases scrutiny on Samsung’s Tablet efforts. Although Apple discloses its iPad sales every quarter, Samsung has yet to reveal how many tablet devices it is actually selling. According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung accounts for 16 percent of the tablet market, compared to 69 percent for the Apple iPad. However, a Lenovo executive claims Samsung sold just 20,000 Galaxy Tabs by the end of 2010, suggesting the device’s launch was far rockier than most industry watchers believed—even with Samsung trying to smooth over an alleged translation error in describing early Galaxy Tab sales.

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