With Nokia back to the drawing board with its transition to the Microsoft Windows platform, Apple and Samsung have been trying to outdo each other in the race of becoming the world's number one smartphone vendor.

Now they've brought their dispute to the tablets and the losers this time are Samsung and consumers who would want to try out an alternative to Apple's market leading iPad.

According to reports, South Korea-based Samsung has agreed to stop advertising or selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia until a lawsuit between the two are resolved.

Apple has claimed in proceedings before the Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett in Sydney that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infirnges on 10 Apple patents, including the touchscreen technology and the look and feel of the iPad. Samsung has agreed to defer selling the newest version of the tablet until the patent lawsuit in the country is resolved.

Samsung Australia clarified in an official announcement that no injunction was issued and the latest move was the outcome of "a mutual agreement between the parties."

Samsung said that while the agreement covers the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, a different variant of the device, which it calls the " Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 for the Australian market" will be released in Australia "in the near future." The ban in Australia does not cover other countries and other Samsung devices.

But the injunction-like agreement obtained by Apple is another boost for Apple, which has already taken 80% of the tablet market. The ruling could also set precedent, at the expense of other smartphone makers and PC makers trying to put offerings alternative to the iPad. Like Samsung, Amazon, Lenovo, Cisco and other vendors are coming up with tablets that run on Google's Android operating system.

For Samsung and Apple, the two have been engaged in litigation that also includes their smartphone line.

Apple early last month filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission., seeking to block U.S. sales for Samsung smartphones and tablets. Apple has accused its rivals of widespread imitation and has taken aim at Samsung, the largest vendor of Android devices. Apple has claimed that Samsung's Galaxy phone and tablet computers "slavishly" copy the iPhone and iPad.
The move came just a week after Samsung requested that the ITC stop importing iPhone and iPad that are manufactured in China. Samsung has clamed that Apple has infringed on five Samsung patents.

The Tablet Wars

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 10.1 inch and a higher resolution display than iPad 2 (1,280 x 800 versus the iPad's 1,024 x 768).The Galaxy Tab is also technically thinner than the iPad 2 (0.01 inch thinner). The Galaxy Tab weighs 1.24 lb compared to iPad 2's 1.33 lb weight. Galaxy Tab comes with a Tegra 2 dual core 1 Ghz processor, a top notch touch response, 1080p video playback, 720p video recording, WiFi, Bluetooth and a long-lasting battery.Galaxy Tab also has a gyroscope and accelerometer for motion gaming experience. It will also run on the Android Honeycomb 3.1.

Galaxy Tab is also Samsung's first tablet to feature the new panel technology, Plane to Line Switching (PLS), which offers a 10 percent greater brightness, clarity and viewing angles twice as large as the more traditional In-Plane Switching (IPS) panels used by iPad.
Apple sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. With Apple's brand name and the thousands of useful apps in the Apple App Store, the iPad has continued to be the tablet of choice.

Year of the Galaxy or iPhone 5?

Samsung announced last week that Samsung GALAXY S II (Model: GT-I9100) has passed the 5 million global sales milestone, a mark has been reached in just 85 days, a rate which is 40 days faster than the original GALAXY S took to reach the same sales mark. The

GALAXY S II is Samsung's flagship smartphone device; a thin, 8.49mm and lightweight dual-core smartphone that runs on the Android platform -- which is now the world's top mobile operating system.

Counting other models, Samsung had shipments of its own-branded devices at 17.0 million units for the second quarter.
Samsung aims to sell 60 million units this year, hoping to surpass Nokia as the world's number smartphone vendor. Samsung will continue to drive sales of the GALAXY SII and strengthen its product lineup with new mobiles featuring Long-Term Evolution technology.

Although Apple has not released a new iPhone, it still sold 20.34 million iPhones in the last quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter, pushing Apple to become the top smartphone vendor in the second quarter.

Apple is reportedly releasing this October the long delayed and widely anticipated iPhone 5, which is thinner and lighter than the previous iPhone model. The iPhone 5 is expected to be similar to the current iPhone 4, but slimmer with an improved eight-megapixel camera. The iPhone 5 is expected to have an A5 processor, a more powerful chip that was added to the iPad 2, which was released in April.