Samsung has yanked the Galaxy Tab 7.7 from demo stands at the IFA tech show in Berlin after Apple administered the legal smackdown to Samsung's newest tablet, which boasts a 1.4GHz processor and a 7.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus display.
Two days ago Apple won an injunction against the Tab 7.7, Bloomberg reports, preventing any sales and marketing of the new Honeycomb tablet in Germany. Apple has already got the larger Galaxy Tab 10.1 slate banned in Germany, though previously it was banned across Europe.
"Samsung respects the court's decision," a spokesman for the company said, adding that the company thinks it "severely limits consumer choice in Germany".
We're feeling rather relieved that we already got our photos and hands-on with the Tab 7.7, as all trace that it was ever at the show appears to have been wiped out.
Apple has said Samsung is 'slavishly' copying its own products, right down to the packaging, but we had hoped that because it's considerably smaller than the iPad, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 might escape the jaws of Apple's legal team. However, it seems like getting the new tablet on sale is going to be a sticky affair after all.
We were hugely impressed with the Tab 7.7 when we got our hands on it a few days ago. Incredibly slim at just 7.9mm across and weighing only 335g, this Honeycomb darling blew our tiny minds with its brushed metal finish, 1.4GHz processor and big, bright screen. Our time with it was brief, but the thought of it not being available makes our hearts do a sad little flutter.
What are your thoughts? Vent your spleen in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
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Comments 21
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anonymous 4 September, 2011 09:32
Am i the only one sick of apple? Cant they take their jumped up pieces of spray painted dog excrement and smear them in their own faces? Why can people never see past the fact the iphones/ipads/macbooks are just shiny pieces of 3rd rate hardware. Have you ever seen someone own a macbook pro for longer than a year and not get at least one dent in it? People need to get over their magpie-esque tendency's and actually mention the hundreds of glaring flaws of apple products. The iphone should have been taken off the market! A £600 phone that doesn't take phone calls, that's the biggest phone cockup of all time and cnet is willing to breeze past this "small inconvenience" and spent hours staring at the polished glass that's inevitably going to break.
anonymous 4 September, 2011 10:10
Apple disgust me... the monolopies comission should have a good look at what they are trying to do... competition will only benefit the consumer, and hopefully will see a price drop in top-end devices. Apple you SUCK
anonymous 4 September, 2011 10:15
@ Anon: i've had my apple spray painted turds for more than 22 months, and they are pristine, it all boils down to this, cut/copy/paste is illegal and someone has to stand up to these bloody chinkies and tell them to bugger off! if anything Nokia should welcome and join Apple's fight as they suffer greatly from china/japan cut/copy/paste tactics, it is wrong, and you know it is, it is wrong in school to copy someone else's work and claim it as your own and it still hold true here, so stop harping on about semantics and see it for what it is, theft plain and simple. and all those that go on about fridges and microwave ovens please, but here is my take, cars! yes they all have 4 wheels and run on gas, but the style? (body) if ford sculpted the fiesta in the style of a golf gti do you think vw that have pruned and marketed that shape for many a year would just go "oh well lets let them, it can't hurt us, we'll jut let it slip by" hell no! they would eat them up for breakfast, coz people buy class and style not 4 wheels and runs on gas.
anonymous 4 September, 2011 10:28
Good to see apple win this war all I have seein is iPad copy's MacBook air copys the world is going to be boring to live in whit all these apple copy cats
anonymous 4 September, 2011 11:11
Yes it good to see apple win sam stop copying apple . Sony designed a tablet that is not a iPad look alike . And what is all the MacBook air look alike to not all people like apple so why are you all copying tham ? Come up with your own designs plz think different not all the same plz
winty 4 September, 2011 12:25
Ridiculous. Apple don't want any competition. Where's all the preventing sales of all the other brands of tabs. They did not invent the tab. So stop thinking it's innovation and everyone is copying. Apple copied ibm with the pc,if this is the way it's going to be.
People need to smarten up and stop supporting a company that supports terrible cheap labour,forcing many workers to suicide and creating major environmental issues in china.
anonymous 4 September, 2011 13:16
Has Samsung thought about launching this very product on the Africa Market. Getting the Nigerian Market to buy such products would knock out the European market. Apple would not fight such a battle on the African Market. What one needs to bear in mind in all this ,is that the key issue is pricing.
Papa Ghana
pablouk1 4 September, 2011 13:17
will someone in the European Union please issue proceeding against Apple for being annoying w@nkers who stifle competition...Just as they did with Micrsoft a few years ago.
anonymous 4 September, 2011 13:48
LMAO it never ceases to amaze me how low Apple can go. Truly pathetic, bitter, greedy company, who are jealous and scared of Samsung because their products wipe the floor with their underpowered, dated, overpriced crap. Used to like Apple, but EVERY thing they do now disgusts me. I don't think I will ever buy an Apple product again after this :)
anonymous 4 September, 2011 13:49
@ Anon post from 10:15 am on 04/9/2011: "Bloody chinkies", eh? That says a lot about your mindset. Apple brings out the notifications bit in IOS5 which existed in Android but then that's not copying. They had a half baked phone that till recently could not forward, copy, paste....something even my most basic phone from years ago had... The only thing I'll give them is their marketing deptt.....I think they may well sell sand to people in the Sahara desert.
anonymous 4 September, 2011 13:52
Oh, and Samsung are not "copying Apple" at all, so stfu. There's only so many f*cking ways to make a glass rectangle, you stupid idiots. Apple are stifling competition because they are jealous douchebags :)
anonymous 4 September, 2011 14:20
URRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGH!!! :@
anonymous 4 September, 2011 16:23
Another reason I don't buy apples over priced dumbed down junk.
anonymous 4 September, 2011 17:46
Actually it's not cut copy paste or are we saying the mac books copy other laptop manufacturers, are we saying the iphone is a similar shape to my old Sony clie??? Get a grip people there are big differences here it's called the os. Form factors weren't invented by apple, but are implemented by every company. ?What stands out is how the competition offers there wares ie software. Apple's software is like a background with icons on (child's play) samsung's is android with a different desktop with widgets ( and there own touchwiz) which I don't particularly like but each to his own.So they are not the same NOT Not Not. Apple needs to stop this legal frustration as all it ends up doing is hindering and delaying new tech!!! At the end of the day you choose your device and live with it it's your choice, not apple's.....so enjoy the competition because you have a choice this way.....
Kodix 4 September, 2011 20:26
People stop fighting and think. It is business and not ethics.
Don't behave like religious fanatics. The only reason Apple is doing this is because they can. They discussed it with their legal, they talked about the short/long term impact on their image and sales and they think it makes financial sense to delay Samsung (i.e. Android) before Android becomes the new Windows of mobile world.
Surely in the coming weeks Samsung will find some way to move forward wih their strategy (maybe align with Google/Motorola) in litigation against Apple.
Anyway all is irrelevant. Samsung could decide to sell the Tab without software loaded tomorrow and allow the software to be loaded for £10 over the air from Google or a 3rd party developer and get away with it.
All is fair in love and the stock exchange war!!
anonymous 4 September, 2011 20:49
Good LORD, I want something else other than Apple products please.
anonymous 4 September, 2011 23:27
Apple tries to flaunt the flaws of the various cheap android ipad knock offs out there, but they do nothing to shut down the companies making them. Samsung develop a product which impresses in early reviews and looks to provide a great experience to users and apple become terrified of the competition and attempt to do everything they can to prevent its release. The only similarity this tab has to the ipad is its form factor, but it's a tablet, it is a standard form factor used by almost everyone. I agree entirely with Kodix, this is simply a business act by apple to delay the onset of android, but just because they can do it does not mean they should. I think apple produce more polished, and in many ways better, products than the majority of the competition but it is there greedy and unethical business practices which mean I cannot bring myself to use their products. This only proves that they are unwilling to engage in healthy competition through product innovation and pricing strategy but are instead reacting to falling market shares with petty law suits. Their copyright claims have covered phones which bear resemblances to the iphone yet also phones by a number of companies which no one in their right mind would consider alike. This simply highlights their desperation and petty business practices. If we're on the subject, Apple ripped off the design for the original iphone from LG. Samsung will still bring this decent tablet to the field, apple has simply delayed its arrival, and this ridiculous, anti competitive behaviour will only prove to damage their own image in the long term.
Jono70 5 September, 2011 09:01
@ pablouk1 4 September, 2011 13:17 - couldn't agree more!!!
anonymous 5 September, 2011 12:03
@ anon 4 September, 2011 10:15
"it is wrong, and you know it is" - Actually you are, you were wrong on just about everything you said.
"they are pristine" - No they aren't; I havent even seen them, but assuming you have used them in any way whatsoever (even though you may have taken very good care of them) there will be light scratching, accumulation of dirt, dust and oils and there will be wear on the mechanical components such as fan/hard drive bearings and hinges etc. Try to sell them as new and you would soon have them returned.
"cut/copy/paste is illegal" - No it isn't, I've used those commands to quote you in this reply, and that isn't illegal.
"someone has to stand up to these bloody chinkies and tell them to bugger off!" - Actually I'd advise you against that, seeing as all your beloved Apple devices and their components are made in 'Chinkyland' (I've dispensed with actual geography as I'm assuming you don't know your arse from your elbow) telling them to bugger off would essentially mean no more Apple.
"if anything Nokia should welcome and join Apple's fight" - Actually they're sort of already involved, you see Apple tried to sue Nokia, so Nokia counter-sued and won. Basically don't count on their support.
"china/japan cut/copy/paste tactics" - Actually Samsung is a Korean company.
"it is wrong, and you know it is" - Clearly I don't, as I'm disputing everything you've said.
"it is wrong in school to copy someone else's work and claim it as your own and it still hold true here" - Actually it doesn't; it's wrong in school to copy someone else's work because you're supposed to be demonstrating your own learning. In the business world it's perfectly fine to copy, as long as you pay the appropriate licensing fees. What is illegal is producing a counterfeit product, which is not the case here.
"so stop harping on about semantics" - Nobody has mentioned anything about semantics, nor has there been an argument based on semantics made either in the article or in the comments. This leads me to believe you don't know what semantics means.
"see it for what it is, theft plain and simple" - No it isn't, theft is a different crime. If it was theft there would need to be an empty Apple warehouse somewhere and shops full of iPads with Samsung stickers on them.
"and all those that go on about fridges and microwave ovens please" - This is just grammatically wrong.
"yes they all have 4 wheels and run on gas, but the style? (body) if ford sculpted the fiesta in the style of a golf gti do you think vw that have pruned and marketed that shape for many a year would just go "oh well lets let them, it can't hurt us, we'll jut let it slip by" - Here you demonstrate your complete ignorance of design principles and of the case in question. The point is that form follows function, in the case of cars, all cars must have common design principles adhered to, i.e. 4 wheels lights etc. In the case of tablets, for them to function efficiently they must all be thin, rectangular touchscreens. The Samsung Tab has different shaped butttons, a different form factor, different ports and different hardware. In this case, a more accurate analogy is that VW would sue Ford for making the Fiesta's doors clunk in the same way as the Golf's when they're closed.
"hell no! they would eat them up for breakfast" - Are you accusing the VW legal team of cannibalism? If not then again you're wrong.
"people buy class and style not 4 wheels and runs on gas." - Actually people buy things for many reasons, and if you look at sales figures, luxury products are almost always outsold by economy or the equivalent practical product. As an example, more Fiesta's are sold than Golf's, more Window's PC's are sold than Apple Mac's, more Android phones are sold than iPhone's etc.
To conclude, you are a vain, self-righteous, ignorant racist; and as such I felt the need to discount everything you think and believe lest anybody read what you said and adopt it for their own opinion without first thinking for themselves, and actually getting informed on the topic before forming an opinion.
-Alimus
anonymous 5 September, 2011 14:14
Just a minor setback..Samsung will adapt and win..
anonymous 7 September, 2011 09:37
I bought a “Samsung S" cost of rs.19400/- on 23rd of Aug 2011. On 25th Aug 2011 while typing SMS/Email I noticed some keys (H, Y, B) were not working at all. Also its touch not working like it was on first day. On the same day (25th Aug) I immediately meet with dealer (Spice Hot-Spot, Malviya Nagar, Main Mkt, New Delhi-17) for replacement so he told me to go to service center for this issue. In Samsung’s Service Center (Nehru Place) I asked them to replace it but they will not taking any action and said that they will only repair the phone instead of replacement. But I don’t want to use a repair phone as I purchase it on 23rd Aug and spend my 19400/- Rs. Please do some measurable action otherwise I am going to spread all these information on many complaint forums and even Social Media Site come tomorrow.
Vivek Gupta
vivekgupta0505@gmail.com