Although Samsung Electronics has faced severe setbacks in its attempts to market its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Europe and Australia, Digitimes Research still expects the company to ship more than five million tablets in 2011.
A German court has granted Apple an injunction against Samsung against distributing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the European Union except for the Netherlands, according to FOSS patents. The blog noted that the "preliminary injunction is all about a design-related intellectual property right, not about hardware or software patents." A separate lawsuit has also been filed in The Netherlands.
The news comes one week after reports that pressure from Apple forced Samsung to delay the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia.
However, Digitimes Research analyst James Wang believes that these are just minor setbacks for Samsung and he does not think Digitimes Research will adjust its 2011 forecast for the year. Samsung should resolve this issue with Apple in the next few months and in the mean time, the vendor will focus its marketing efforts in other markets. Digitimes Research expects Samsung to trail only Apple in tablet shipments this year.
Reuters is also reporting that Samsung's plans to launch its tablet in India and Australia would not be effected by the news out of Germany.