Defiant Aussies continue to sell contraband Samsung slab
Laugh gutturally at fruity threats
An Australian retailer is defying Apple and the courts by continuing to sell Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Aussies, despite the temporary injunction.
dMAVO said it has created a separate entity in Europe and is shipping the fondleslabs from Asia in order to sidestep the Australian ban, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"We have a new entity established and a separate server - just to deal with the tablet orders - that is undergoing testing as of last Saturday," dMAVO managing director Wojtek Czarnocki told the paper.
"Was Apple just bluffing or do they really want to play the cat and mouse game? We're up for it," the plucky MD said.
The fruity firm has already threatened to sue the company if it doesn't stop selling the tablets, but Samsung's appeal on the injunction is scheduled for 25 November, and Czarnocki is confident Apple won't bother with dMAVO before then.
"Now that the appeal to the full bench is listed for 25 November, Apple would have to convince the court that a hearing against us is needed before that date," he said.
"We'd be amazed, though not unprepared, should that occur."
Apparently, dMAVO isn't the only online retailer flouting the ban on the tablets, although the company has become something of a the standard-bearer for the defiance following coverage from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.
Czarnocki has said that the cost of creating the new entity overseas was negligible when compared to the sales of the forbidden fondleslab. He added that the firm has "stopped counting" how many it has sold.
"Our servers were almost collapsing on a number of occasions," he said.
Apple won its temporary injunction against the tablet in Australian court in mid-October and it's likely that the court order could be extended to cover any retailer selling the contraband, even with overseas entities.
However, to pursue the issue, Apple would have to take the defiant dealers to court, which might not be worth its while until after the appeal has been decided.
In the meantime, the casting of Samsung and the retailers as the "underdogs" against the forbidding might of Apple – and the possibility that Tab-loving Aussies might not get another chance to lay hands on the 10.1 – is probably only helping sales of the tablet along. ®
COMMENTS
"However, to pursue the issue, Apple would have to take the defiant dealers to court"
I'm guessing they wouldn't, even if they do win the full hearing. Taking the piss out of Samsung is one thing, but no danger Aussie public opinion will put up with them bullying homegrown businesses.
That's not to say Apple would then be completely without options. Sneaky anti-competitive bastards never are.
Conflict of Interests?
Google 'Wentworth 5', the barrister firm reprenting Apple in Annabelle Bennett court in Austraila which gave Apple the injunction. Click the first result that leads to Wentworth 5 website, and click 'People'. Among the first 6 senior council members, you could see Stephen Burley SC and David Bennett AC QC
Stephen Burley SC was the barrister representing Apple in the Annabelle Bennett's court. See, bellow link.
http://news.yahoo.com/apple-may-reveal-ipad-sales-chance-banning-galaxy-060010455.html
David Bennett AC QC is the husband of Australia Federal judge Annabelle Bennett. See bellow link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bennett_(barrister)
Ie, The husband of the Australia Judge Annabelle Bennett is one of the senior council member of a firm (Wentworth 5) who was representing Apple in Annabelle Bennett court? It smells alot!!!
Who will keep the Aussies safe from Samsung? Won't anyone help them?
Think of all the people buying Galaxy Tablets that think they are buying an iPad, only to get it home and find out they are not in a restricted walled-garden.
How are they ever going to deal with having choices?
I mean look how similar the names are "Samsung Galaxy Tablet vs. Apple iPad), customers are going to look at those names and see the two letters that those names share (the "A" and the "L"), and buy the wrong device, right? How dare Google name it Android? Is it andrOId or IOS, dyslexics will certainly be affected the most by their bait-and-switch tactics.
When I go shopping for a rectangle with rounded corners, there is only one thing I'm thinking of, and that's a clipboard, er I mean Apple iPad, right?
Apple should get in the habit of putting that logo of theirs somewhere on their devices, that way people aren't confused as to which device they are buying.
/end of sarcasm (actually, that might be the most sarcasm I've ever spewed)
Samsung Fondleslab
As an Apple user, I also have a Samsung 10.1 Fondleslab. It's easy to see why Apple are worried. Just the fact I can copy stuff onto it without the abomination that is iTunes brings it out on top.
It's a work tool. I need to use it for whatever my work demands, not whatever Apple allows. While I'm happy to have a locked down phone, a tablet computer should be free to let me do whatever I want to do.
The downside is the amount of apps available is fairly poor compared to the iSlab, but hopefully that will change. Google also need to separate the phone apps from the slab apps because most of the phone apps seem to work badly on the larger screens, and some barely work at all. I downloaded one app yesterday that crashed every time I changed the screen orientation. Ho hum.
Flaunting
"dMAVO isn't the only online retailer flaunting the ban on the tablets" . No, they're flouting the ban on the tablets.
Actually they're flaunting their flouting of the ban on the tablets.
Well, since they're "testing" the new process they presumably haven't actually sold anything yet.
So they're flaunting their floating of their flouting of the ban.
- Donald Neal
