Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N Tries to Dodge Apple's Patent Hounds

Even though Apple has started to feel some heat of its own in its lawsuit duel with Samsung, it still has its initial victories, the ones that got the Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in some parts of the world, so Samsung decided to be inventive.

Not too inventive, it turns out, at least not on the surface, where just a couple of, arguably mild, design changes were implemented.

The Android tablet got a new frame but little else, apart from a Bluetooth upgrade to 3.0 and a new location for the loudspeakers.

Said frame slightly intrudes on the glass and wraps around the left and right sides.

The product has already made its appearance online, on Cyberport (to give one example) and was at least able to retain its rounded corners, to which Apple's doesn't precisely have exclusive rights.

Whether or not Apple is going to go after this new device as well is unclear.

Either way the Cupertino company already succeeded, albeit only in some countries, in preventing the product from being one of the earlier Android devices to make it to market.

Also, the heat between Samsung and Apple is not going to disappear with this.

After all, the gloves are off, more or less, in the other front of their fight, the one over iPhone 4S and whether or not it infringes Samsung's 3G patents.

As Apple suddenly went after the Galaxy tab 10.1 and tried to get it banned from every market imaginable, so did Samsung push against the iPhone 4S, dropping its so-called informal policy of not suing the company.

Initial episodes weren't overly productive and the European Commission started outright investigating Samsung over it.

Under a week ago, though, two of Samsung's patents were deemed valid, meaning that Apple's device could end up banned after all.

Apple was also denied, in Australia, the motion to delay the case to the second half of 2012, as the judge considered it too likely that yet another iPhone would be made by then, forcing Samsung to recast its whole case.