T-Mobile USA unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to U.S. buyers on Monday, just days ahead of a court hearing at which Apple will seek a preliminary injunction to prevent sales of the device in the U.S.
T-Mobile didn't say how much the tablet will cost, nor when it will go on sale, but did say the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and another tablet, the 7-inch T-Mobile Springboard with Google, will be available "in time for the holidays" at T-Mobile retail stores and through its web store.
The court hearing on the preliminary injunction sought by Apple is scheduled for Oct. 13. T-Mobile asked the court on Sept. 28 for leave to submit a brief of amicus curiae ("friend of the court") to prevent the injunction, as it would affect its holiday sales this year.
T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, did not immediately respond to an e-mail asking if the company had a contingency plan should Apple obtain a preliminary injunction.
Apple petitioned the U.S. District Court of Northern District of California, San Jose Division, in July for a preliminary injunction prohibiting Samsung Electronics and its U.S. entities from selling, offering to sell, or importing into the U.S. some products including the Galaxy S 4G and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer, claiming these products infringed its patents.
Samsung is currently involved in a number of lawsuits with Apple in different regions.
Besides T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless also asked the court leave to submit a brief of amicus curiae before the court, as it said an injunction would hinder Verizon Wireless in developing and deploying its next generation high-speed LTE (long term evolution) network.
On Sept. 30, District Judge Lucy H. Koh granted T-Mobile leave to submit a brief of amicus curiae, but disallowed it from presenting an oral argument on issues relating to its amicus curiae brief at the Oct. 13 hearing. The request from Verizon to submit a brief of amicus curiae was also allowed.
T-Mobile earlier submitted to the court that the timing of an injunction on the Galaxy S 4G smartphone and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, two popular consumer products that will help anchor its 2011 holiday sales, would unnecessarily harm T-Mobile and thousands of U.S. consumers.
The T-Mobile SpringBoard with Google, the other device unveiled Monday, is manufactured by Huawei Technologies. It runs Android 3.2, is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core mobile processor and offers a variety of entertainment applications, including access to thousands of movies and TV shows, T-Mobile said. It has a 7-inch HD multi-touch display.
John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com