UPDATED 06:07 EDT / OCTOBER 12 2011

Samsung’s Desperate Bid to Rain On Apple’s Parade

When Apple rejected Samsung’s effort for a truce, everyone was certain that the latter would do everything in their power to get back at Apple.  And they did.  A day after Apple unveiled their iPhone 4S, Samsung filed an infringement lawsuit against Apple’s latest device in courts across France and Italy.  And in an effort to to mock Apple’s iPhone 4S release in the wake of the iPhone 5 hype, they teased people with the unveiling of the Nexus Prime, which was expected to launch yesterday, but Samsung wasn’t so cold-hearted.  In respect for Steve Jobs’ death, they postponed their event.  But that doesn’t mean they don’t have other tricks up their sleeves.

To thwart Apple’s victory in Europe, Samsung is planning to upgrade the three Samsung smartphones, Galaxy S, Galaxy SII and Ace, so that the ban will be lifted.

“We’ve fixed the technological problem and upgraded products to address the issue. They will be shortly available for sale,” Samsung spokesman James Chung said.

Samsung did not specify when these upgraded smartphones will be available in the market and what exactly changed in the three banned devices.

And while awaiting the ruling of Australian court as to whether the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be banned from the Australian market, Samsung decided to crash Apple’s iPhone 4S launch on Friday.  They erected a pop up shop just a few stores away from the official Sydney Apple store.  And that’s not all: they’re offering the Samsung Galaxy SII for only $2 for the first 10 customers of the day.  They started with the $2 promo, just the device and no network contract, on Monday and will continue doing so until Friday. It’s no surprise that the Samsung pop-up shop now has a longer line of waiting customers than the Apple store.

Though there’s a long line in the Samsung booth, not everyone is there for all the right reasons.  Some of them want to avail of the $2 promo so they can sell them at a higher price.  While others line up just because the device is outrageously cheap and they need to replace their old, worn out mobile phones.  People in line at the Samsung booth said that they can’t believe people are lining up at the Apple store to pay full price for the iPhone 4S, suggesting Apple fans jump on the $2 Galaxy SII and then sell it at a higher price, then use that money to buy the iPhone 4S to save a few bucks.

Gareth Sneade, manager of the $24 million Fife Capital where Samsung set up their pop up shop on bottom floor store front of the building, told Fairfax that Samsung approached him within the last three months to rent the said space but he had no idea what they were up to.  Sneade stated that Samsung “was a good fit” to rent the space.  Samsung said that they have no intentions of continuing renting the space after Friday.

Based on comments from various people, Samsung’s $2 sale comes off as really desperate as they have to set up a pop up booth just to get a line while Apple has over1 million pre-orders of the iPhone 4S, aside from those who are willing to camp outside their shops just to get their hands on the new iPhone.


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