Samsung Holds Back on Tablet Release Due to Death of Steve Jobs

By Cynthia Herbert :: 9:26 PM

Samsung said today that it had held back on launching a new Android smartphone in the wake of the death of Apple founder, chairman and former CEO Steve Jobs last week.

The company had been planning to roll out its new phone, running Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich release, on Tuesday at its Mobile Unpack event in San Diego, Calif.

In a statement, Samsung said, “We decided it was not the right time to announce a new product while the world was expressing tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing.”

Samsung is the biggest Android mobile phone manufacturer. Android phones have a greater share of the market, combined, than Apple’s iPhone, which is still the best-selling smartphone in the world.

In addition to needing to wait out the mourning period over Jobs, Samsung is also embroiled in legal battles over smartphone technology with Apple Corp. Samsung and Apple are in the midst of over 20 lawsuits across at least a dozen countries, many of them running since earlier this spring. The day before Jobs’ death, Samsung widened its patent-infringement cases to attempt to block the sale of the iPhone 4S in France and Italy.

Samsung has not yet set a new date for the delayed launch.