Apple's initial unsuccessful attempt to build a modern operating system in preparation for the switch to Intel processors led to the company's realization that it needed to purchase NeXT, a move that led to Steve Jobs' return to the company he co-founded.

During a panel entitled "Steve Jobs: A Legacy of Vision and Leadership" hosted by the Churchhill Club last week, several former employees from Apple's early days offered an inside look at the process behind the move to Intel chips, as noted by Forbes.

Panelists included Bill Atkinson, the creator of MacPaint and HyperCard; Jean-Louis Gassée, former head of Macintosh product development; Andy Hertzfeld, who served as a developer on the original Macintosh team and now works for Google; Regis McKenna, former marketing veteran for the company and Larry Tesler, former VP of Advanced Technology and Chief Scientist at Apple. Deborah Stapleton, Pixar's former head of investor and public relations, also participated in the panel.

According to Tesler, the need to transition away from Motorola's PowerPC processors in favor of Intel's chips led to the company's decision to acquire NeXT.

"We had actually tried a few years before to port the MacOS to Intel, but there was so much machine code still there, that to make it be able to run both, it was just really really hard," he said. "And so a number of the senior engineers and I got together and we recommended that first we modernize the operating system, and then we try to get it to run on Intel, initially by developing our own in-house operating system which turned out to be one of these projects that just grew and grew and never finished."

 

As the team realized the project wouldn't work, Apple eventually decided to purchase an operation. The company considered both BeOS and NeXT, both of which would make the switch to Intel possible. Of course, Apple eventually went with the company that Jobs had founded, a fateful decision that led to his impressive comeback.

Even so, it took Jobs several years to eventually make the switch. He first focused on modernizing Mac OS, releasing Mac OS X in 2001. Then, after years of rumors that a switch was coming, he announced in June 2005 that Apple would move away from the PowerPC architecture to Intel.

Jobs had wanted to go with Intel at least five years earlier. He said during his 2005 keynote that Mac OS X had been leading "a secret double life" with parallel in-house Intel versions developed alongside each public PowerPC release.

To ease the transition, Apple developed a "Rosetta" emulator that allowed legacy PowerPC code to be run on Intel-based Macs. The company quietly retired Rosetta earlier this year with the release of Mac OS X Lion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gorilla Glass

 

It is well known that most full touch-screen smartphones on the market today feature a scratch resistant display coating called the 'Gorilla Glass.' Made by a New York based company Corning Glass, the Gorilla Glass allows smartphone makers to feature a large piece of display on the front of their

device without the risk of excessive breakdowns or scratches. While this may seem like a easy fix today, back in 2006-2007 when Apple was gearing up for the original iPhone launch, this wasn't that simple.

Steve Jobs biography reveals his interactions with Corning Glass while creating a display for the iPhone that is "strong an resistant to scratches." While the logical place to look for any component is Asia, John Seeley Brown a friend of Steve Jobs, introduced him to Corning CEO Wendell Weeks. This marked the beginning of what went on to change Corning's fortunes and offer manufactures a tough glass not just for smartphones, but tablets, laptops and even TV sets.

In the 1960's Corning developed a chemical exchange process, which lead to the tough glass known as 'Gorilla Glass,' but Corning failed to find a market for the same and had quit making it altogether. Jobs jumped on the opportunity and offered to buyout all the Gorilla Glass that Corning could supply in the next six months, but since none of the plants that Corning operated were manufacturing this glass, the supply was in doubt. Jobs persisted and pushed Weeks to divert resources on the Gorilla Glass and eventually they were able to meet the demand in less than six months.

 

The first iPhone shipped in 2007 and the rest is history. It resulted in a mini-panic within the smartphone industry. While the entire industry jumped on the full touchscreen smartphone bandwagon, Corning made hay while the sun shined. Almost all smartphone makers looking for a good solution to strengthen their touchscreen ended up using the Gorilla Glass. We have seen the Gorilla Glass finding its way to notebooks and in all probability Apple might be using the same technology in its other product lines like the iPad and the MacBooks as well.

Wendell Weeks is quoted saying "We produced a glass that had never been made." And a prized possession that he has today is the memento framed on display, it is a message from Steve Jobs that reads "We couldn't have done it without you" ... sent on the day when the original iPhone was launched. Corning's website may not mention Apple as a client or the iPhones as a product featuring Gorilla Glass. Rather it features a long list of manufactures using the Gorilla Glass and dozens of products using the same. Apple's role was silent, away from public attention and never advertised. Yes Apple reinvented the Gorilla Glass, just one of the many small things that changed the face of the smartphone industry.

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Users in this age of personal IT know quality tech and are too smart to fall for bull from vendors or the press

 

I never quite understood the "selling like hotcakes" metaphor for a product that was in great demand. However you phrase it, demand for Apple's new iPhone 4S is so high that the company can't keep enough of them in stock, and customers at Apple stores, AT&T stores, Verizon Wireless stores, and Sprint stores are leaving empty-handed if they haven't reserved an iPhone 4S in advance. Lack of inventory is never a good business strategy, but in this case, the red-hot demand comes despite a barrage of negative publicity about problems, and alleged problems, with the iPhone 4S's software.

The news comes from a survey by Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore, who found that nearly all of the 30 Apple stores he checked were running out of phones every day. Demand that heavy is even more striking given that more than 4 million were sold in the first three days the new iPhone was available.

[ InfoWorld picks the best office apps for the iPad and the best office apps for the iPhone. | Keep up on key technology news and insights via Twitter and with the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ]

There's no doubt that a software glitch is trashing iPhone 4S's battery life; after all, Apple has a patch on the way. And Siri, which Apple forthrightly calls a beta service, still has rough edges and odd quirks. But consumers apparently have a lot more faith in Apple than they do in the Chicken Little tech press that seemingly panics any time a user files a complaint on a vendor website -- and despite my ink-stained DNA, I have to agree with them.

Indeed, as the consumerization of IT -- the move of user-owned and -selected devices into the enterprise -- takes hold, we must assume that users aren't stupid and in fact often exhibit better judgment than the companies trying to foist off inferior products. Or that IT gives them credit for.

Note that Adobe said yesterday it is pulling back from mobile Flash development, and remember how much grief Apple got because it said the technology was too buggy and too resource-intensive to support within iOS. That decision to ban Flash didn't slow iPhone or iPad sales, and even more to the point, the inclusion of Flash didn't help sales of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook or Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad, whose developers made a big deal of their ability to access Flash content.

Tech writer Harry McCracken's description of watching those devices play (or try to play) a mobile Flash video is dead on: "The experience has always ranged from unimpressive to excruciating. Watching video was frequently like going to see a movie at a theater with a projector that keeps breaking down."

Apple needed lasers, and lots of them. The team found a US company that made laser equipment for microchip manufacturing which, after some tweaking, could do the job.

SAN FRACISCO: About five years ago, Apple Inc design guru Jony Ive decided he wanted a new feature for the next MacBook: a small dot of green light above the screen, shining through the computer's aluminum casing to indicate when its camera was on. The problem? It's physically impossible to shine light through metal.

Ive called in a team of manufacturing and materials experts to figure out how to make the impossible possible, according to a former employee familiar with the development who requested anonymity to avoid irking Apple. The team discovered it could use a customized laser to poke holes in the aluminum small enough to be almost invisible to the human eye but big enough to let light through.

Applying that solution at massive volume was a different matter, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its November 7 issue. Apple needed lasers, and lots of them. The team found a US company that made laser equipment for microchip manufacturing which, after some tweaking, could do the job.

Each machine typically goes for about $250,000. Apple convinced the seller to sign an exclusivity agreement and has since bought hundreds of them to make holes for the green lights that now shine on the company's MacBook Airs, Trackpads and wireless keyboards.

Most of Apple's customers have probably never given that green light a second thought, but its creation speaks to a massive competitive advantage for Apple: operations.

'Nevers seen before'

This is the world of manufacturing, procurement and logistics in which the new chief executive officer, Tim Cook, excelled, earning him the trust of Steve Jobs. According to more than a dozen interviews with former employees, executives at suppliers and management experts familiar with the company's operations, Apple has built a closed ecosystem where it exerts control over almost every piece of the supply chain, from design to retail store. Because of its volume -- and its occasional ruthlessness -- Apple gets big discounts on parts, manufacturing capacity, and air freight.

"Operations expertise is as big an asset for Apple as product innovation or marketing," says Mike Fawkes, a former supply-chain chief at Hewlett-Packard Co and now a venture capitalist with VantagePoint Capital Partners. "They've taken operational excellence to a level never seen before."

Nitty-gritty details

This operational edge is what enables Cupertino, California-based Apple to handle massive product launches without having to maintain large, profit-sapping inventories. It's allowed a company often criticized for high prices to sell its iPad at a price that very few rivals can beat, while still earning a 25 per cent margin on the device, according to the estimates of Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos.

And there is speculation that Apple's operational expertise is likely part of what gives the company enough confidence to enter the notoriously cutthroat television market by 2013 with a TV set that would tightly integrate with existing Apple software like iTunes. The widespread skepticism over Apple's ability to compete in such a price-sensitive market, where margins are often in the single digits, is "exactly what people said when Apple got into cell phones," says Munster.

Apple began innovating on the nitty-gritty details of supply-chain management almost immediately upon Jobs's return in 1997. At the time, most computer manufacturers transported products by sea, a far cheaper option than air freight. To ensure that the company's new, translucent blue iMacs would be widely available at Christmas the following year, Jobs paid $50 million to buy up all the available holiday air freight space, says John Martin, a logistics executive who worked with Jobs to arrange the flights.

Handicapping Compaq

The move handicapped rivals such as Compaq Computer Corp. that later wanted to book air transport. Similarly, when iPod sales took off in 2001, Apple realized it could pack so many of the diminutive music players on planes that it became economical to ship them directly from Chinese factories to consumers' doors. When a Hewlett-Packard staffer bought one and received it a few days later, tracking its progress around the world through Apple's website, "It was an 'Oh s---' moment," recalls Fawkes.

That mentality -- spend exorbitantly wherever necessary, and reap the benefits from greater volume in the long run -- is institutionalized throughout Apple's supply chain, and begins at the design stage.

Ive and his engineers sometimes spend months living out of hotel rooms in order to be close to suppliers and manufacturers, helping to tweak the industrial processes that translate prototypes into mass-produced devices. For new designs such as the MacBook's unibody shell, cut from a single piece of aluminum, Apple's designers work with suppliers to create new tooling equipment.

The decision to focus on a few product lines, and to do little in the way of customization, is a huge advantage.

 

It was perhaps the worst kept secret in Apple's recent history; Apple announced iPhone 4S on the 4th of October, but leaks within Apple's own iTunes code and from Vodafone Germany had all but given the game away. Early in the day on the 4th, before the launch, even Apple's own Japanese website was getting in on the leaks game.

Apple wasn't playing the delay game - the iPhone 4S was made available just two weeks after the announcement and not just in the United States. Australia was amongst the launch countries and the nature of the international dateline meant that that Sydney schoolboys Wil Batterham and Tom Mosca may have been the first two people sold an iPhone 4S after a 63 hour wait outside Sydney's Apple store. That can only be a "may", as carriers opened their doors at the same time with widespread walkup availability on launch day. Batterham's queuing was easily the most publicised, though. The iPhone 4S didn't quite live up to the rumour hype - although Stephen Fry did rather like it. The rumours centred around an iPhone 5 rather than the iPhone 4S, but that didn't stop it selling extremely well both internationally and locally, although there was frustration that one of its most-hyped features, the voice control system Siri had limited location functionality outside of the United States. It did a fair job of understanding the Australian accent, however. Equally, there was some frustration with carriers who offered pre-orders for the iPhone 4S and had issues dealing with customers not receiving phones before those who queued up.

New Apple CEO Tim Cook did the honours introducing the iPhone 4S, and a day later it was clear why Steve Jobs didn't make an appearance, as the former CEO and one half of the original Apple duo (if you discount early shareholder/deliberate vote-breaker Ronald Wayne) sadly passed away on the 5th after a long battle with cancer. Tributes to Jobs flowed from all over the planet. It was announced that Walter Isaacson's authorised biography would make its debut almost a month early on the 24th of October on the back of the Jobs' passing. Isaacson made an appearance on the US version of 60 Minutes, and the hype appears to have paid off; his biography of Jobs is tipped to be Amazon's best-selling book of the year.

iPhone 4S wasn't Apple's only launch in October, although it was easily the most hyped; later in the month Apple refreshed its Macbook Pro lines with processor and storage upgrades the notable new inclusions. While the iPhone 4S has arguably the same kind of thing happening, Apple made much less fuss about the new Macbook Pro lines.

Apple's long-standing legal spat with Samsung continued apace in the Australian courts. Samsung announced early in the month that it might scrap plans to sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 product in Australia if it didn't win the court's approval. Samsung was rather left with egg on its face in a US court after its representatives couldn't tell the Tab and iPad apart at a distance, and locally Samsung did find itself subject to a temporary injunction on selling the device, although a hearing into its appeal against that injunction has been fast-tracked http://www.zdnet.com.au/samsung-contests-galaxy-tab-injunction-339325074.htm in recent days. Samsung, for its part has sought injunctions against Apple selling the iPhone 4S in Italy, France Japan and Australia. Apple's disputes with Samsung are largely at the patent level, and those who don't like Apple's leveraging of its patents would have been unhappy to hear late in the month that Apple had been granted a patent on the slide to lock function of iOS. Still, if you ever wanted proof that big companies can be, shall we say, a touch contradictory, it's also worth noting that Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung COO Lee Jae-yong met during the month to discuss long-term parts cooperation arrangements. Or in other words, Apple's seemingly happy with Samsung making some of the innards of its devices, but not ones that may look like them or possibly infringe patents.

Rumour Mill

With the iPhone 4S out of the way, the rumour mills had little to go on besides trying to work out when the new Macbook Pro models would launch, which happened towards the end of the month. The Mac Pro line is still waiting for updates - now suggested to be early next year. The Macbook Air is the new entry level, the Pros just got updated and the Mac Pro is not likely until next year, so where did that leave the rumour cycle? Floundering around for a while, aside from inevitable iPad 3 speculation until it latched onto an on-again off-again prospect - that of an Apple TV. Not the small box that Apple currently sells, but a fully-fledged Apple-branded television set.

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Apple Inc. board member and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said the issues related to Steve Jobs’s illness were handled appropriately and the founder planned for the future by nurturing talent.

“I thought it was handled absolutely correctly,” Gore said of Jobs’s medical condition at the All Things D technology conference in Hong Kong today. “I wouldn’t change a single thing” about how the board handled it.

Jobs, who built the world’s most valuable technology company by introducing products including the iPhone and iPad, died this month, eight years after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His replacement Tim Cook won’t face an exodus of executives because “their loyalty to the company is quite deep,” Gore said.

“I don’t think the executive team would split given Apple’s reputation and momentum in the market,” Alexander Peterc, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in London. “For those who were thinking of leaving, they would have left already.”

Cook needs the company’s talent pool to maintain Jobs’ legacy of innovation amid rising competition from tablet computers and smartphones that operate on Google Inc.’s Android software. Companies led by Samsung Electronics Co. are introducing new models in the segments previously dominated by the products Jobs pioneered.

Apple fell in U.S. trading on Oct. 19 after profit missed analysts’ predictions for the first time in at least six years amid signs that customers delayed iPhone purchases before the release of the latest model.

Secret Treatments

Jobs received secret treatments for the illness while telling people he was cured, his authorized biographer Walter Isaacson told CBS News’s “60 Minutes,” according to excerpts released yesterday.

Gore, an Apple board member since 2007, said Jobs had counseled employees in their final years to put their own stamp on the organization after his passing. Jobs used to say Walt Disney Co. had struggled after the death of its founder because executives often asked “What would Walt do,” Gore cited Jobs as saying.

“Don’t ask what Steve would have done, follow your own voice,” Gore quoted Jobs as saying. Apple “had discussions at every single board meeting about cultivating talent.”

Jobs put off cancer surgery for nine months while he sought out spiritual and dietary therapies against the advice of his wife, Isaacson said. Once he had the surgery he told his employees about it while playing down the seriousness of his condition, CBS said.

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After attending a memorial service in honor of the late Steve Jobs, Samsung's chief operating officer met with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss supplying the company with "even better parts" in 2013 and 2014, after its current contract ends next year.

Lee Jae-Yong, heir apparent to the family-owned Samsung Electronics empire, met with Cook for more than two hours after attending Jobs' memorial service on Sunday, The Korea Herald reports.

Arriving back in Seoul earlier this week, Lee told reporters that, despite the ongoing legal disagreement between the two companies, Samsung will continue to sell parts to Apple until 2012. On Monday, it was reported that Samsung will supply a next-generation quad-core "A6" processor to Apple next year.

Lee went on to suggest that he had talked with Cook how his company's supplier relationship with Apple will continue on after next year.

"For the 2013-2014 period, we discussed how best to supply even better parts," he said. Lee also mentioned that he and Cook had talked about past challenges and how to promote good relations between their companies in the future, the report noted.

The executive declined to comment on whether the meeting could lead to a resolution of the companies' legal dispute, saying only that his visit "was to attend the memorial service."

Apple was Samsung's second-largest client last year, behind only Sony, and is expected to take the top spot this year with an estimated $7.8 billion in component purchases.

As tensions have mounted between Apple and Samsung, rumors have swirled that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. would take over for Samsung in producing Apple's custom chips.
"There is a need to compete in a fair manner for the benefit of the consumer, and this stance existed in the past, is taking place now and will occur in the future," Lee said. According to him, the company is currently deciding whether to expand its legal actions against Apple or to hold off.

Apple first sued Samsung in April, alleging that the company had copied the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad. At present, ongoing lawsuits between the two companies number in the twenties and span more than a dozen countries.

Last month, the head of global marketing at Samsung said the South Korean electronics giant would be "more aggressive" in pursuing its rights after having held back because Apple was a client.

"We've been quite respectful and also passive in a way," the executive reportedly said. "However, we shouldn't be... anymore."

For its part, Samsung does appear to be taking steps to curb potential infringement of Apple's intellectual property. The company has indicated that, for the just-announced Galaxy Nexus smartphone, great efforts were taken to ensure that the device does not violate any known Apple patents.

"Now we will avoid everything we can and take patents very seriously," said Samsung's mobile president Shin Jong-kyun earlier this week.

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CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple is holding a private memorial service for employees to celebrate the life of company co-founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs.

The service, announced to Apple employees in an email by CEO Tim Cook, is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at company headquarters in Cupertino. It will also be webcast to employees worldwide.

Apple plans to close its retail stores for several hours so employees can watch the service online, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue, and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The service will take place in the campus' outdoor amphitheater, according to Cook's email.

The celebration is for employees to "take time to remember the incredible things Steve achieved in his life and the many ways he made our world a better place," Cook wrote.

The event follows a memorial at Stanford University last Sunday for friends and family. That service at Memorial Church reportedly brought out tech titans including Oracle chief Larry Ellison and Microsoft's Bill Gates, as well as politicians including Bill Clinton. U2 frontman Bono and Joan Baez reportedly performed.

The court that granted Apple a temporary injunction against Samsung's rival to the iPad has knocked back a request to prevent Samsung from launching a similar product.

Apple won a Federal Court battle on Thursday to temporarily prevent South Korean technology company Samsung selling its latest computer tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, in Australia.

Lawyers for Apple and Samsung squared off again on Friday in the Federal Court in Sydney to debate court orders that will enforce the ruling.

Apple's senior barrister Stephen Burley asked Justice Annabelle Bennett to prevent Samsung from selling any "tablet device" during the injunction period.

"You're not suggesting the respondent (Samsung) would simply rename it?" Justice Bennett asked.

Mr Burley responded: "We know it's not going to be the same device."

Justice Bennett said Samsung had the right to design a tablet device without the technology that Apple alleges Samsung has infringed.

She ruled that the orders applied to any version of Galaxy Tab 10.1 but not to any "tablet device", which she said was beyond the scope of the judicial proceedings.

She also rejected Mr Burley's request that Samsung provide Apple with a version of any tablet device it produced 10 days before it was released into the market.

Mr Burley followed with a request to order Samsung to inform Apple 10 days in advance of a tablet product release.

"It could be a whole new product," Justice Bennett said.

"Yes, it could be a whole new infringing product," Mr Burley replied.

Samsung's lead barrister Neil Murray opposed the request, arguing Samsung should not be treated differently from any other traders in the marketplace.

Justice Bennett agreed and noted that all personal computer companies announced new product releases in advance.

"If they've got a whole new product in their planning, why should you have advance notice of it?" she said to Mr Burley.

Patents row

Apple claims Samsung's tablet copies its iPad, infringing a number of patents relating to touch screens and the technology that correctly interprets imperfect finger commands.

Samsung denies the allegations and has filed a cross-claim.

Justice Bennett said on Thursday that Apple had "established a prima facie case" regarding two patents, meaning it could succeed at trial on the present evidence.

She noted the strength of Samsung's submission and said whatever ruling she made, one of the parties would suffer a significant detriment.

"In my view, the balance of convenience tilts in Apple's favour," Justice Bennett said in her full judgment on Friday.

Samsung has 14 days to appeal the temporary injunction.

Otherwise, the matter will come before the Federal Court on November 1 to determine the specifics of a future trial.

The two companies are also embroiled in legal disputes in the United States, Europe, South Korea and Japan.

A US judge said on Friday that Samsung's Galaxy tablets infringed Apple's iPad patents but also said that Apple had a problem establishing the validity of its patents.

 

 

 

A man uses Samsung Electronics' tablet Galaxy Tab 10.1 displayed for customers at the company's headquarters in Seoul October 7, 2011.

A court slapped a temporary ban on the sale of Samsung Electronics' latest computer tablet in Australia on Thursday, handing rival Apple another legal victory in the two firms' global patent war.  

 

SYDNEY

Resolution of the case could take months -- unless Samsung takes the potentially risky option of an expedited hearing -- which, in the fast-moving industry, could mean the new Galaxy tablet is never launched in Australia. The Galaxy is the hottest competitor to Apple's iPad, which dominates global tablet sales.

 

"The ruling could further extend Apple's dominance in the tablet market as it widens a sales ban of Samsung's latest product," said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at Shinyoung Securities in Seoul.

 

Whilst the ruling is a blow for Samsung, the Australian market is not large. A more important legal battle starts later on Thursday, when a Californian court begins hearing Apple's bid to ban sales of Galaxy products in the United States.

 

The two technology firms have been locked in an acrimonious battle in 10 countries involving smartphones and tablets since April, with the Australian dispute centring on touch-screen technology used in Samsung's new tablet.

 

The Federal Court in Sydney, in granting the temporary ban, ruled Samsung had a case to answer on at least two of Apple's patents. The ban applies on sales of Samsung's Galaxy 10.1 tablet until the same court rules on the core patent issue.

 

"I am satisfied that it is appropriate to grant an interim injunction, however I propose again the opportunity of an early final hearing on the issues presented in this application," judge Annabelle Bennett told the court.

 

Intellectual property expert Florian Mueller said one of the patents at issue, a touchscreen heuristics patent, listed the late Steve Jobs as its first inventor, making it "emotionally but also strategically important to Apple."

 

"None of the two patents will be at issue later today at a hearing in California on Apple's motion for a U.S.-wide preliminary injunction," said Mueller. "But the Australian ruling nevertheless adds to Apple's 'copycat' story and increases the likelihood of an injunction in the U.S."

Samsung shares fell after the ruling, and closed down 0.9 percent in Seoul, where the broader market finished up 0.8 percent.

APPEAL OPTION

The Australian ruling follows Apple's successful legal move to block Samsung from selling its tablets in Germany and a case in the Netherlands that has forced Samsung to modify some smartphone models.

Samsung left open the option of appealing against the ruling and pointed out that it would continue to pursue its own patent claim against Apple involving Samsung's wireless technology.

"We are disappointed with this ruling and Samsung will take all necessary measures, including legal action, in order to ensure our innovative products are available to consumers," the company said in a statement.

The Australian court's hearing of the patent issue could force Samsung to miss the Christmas gift-giving season there.

"It will take a long time to gather the expert evidence on how Samsung is or isn't in breach of Apple's patents, so without some sort of expedition, they are looking at a substantial time out of the market," said Nathan Mattock, a telecoms intellectual property lawyer at Marque Lawyers in Sydney.

In her ruling, judge Bennett offered Samsung the opportunity of a quick final ruling on the patent dispute.

But Samsung has so far been reluctant to agree to an expedited Australian hearing, despite the risk of missing out on Christmas sales, because it says it needs time to prepare a proper defence against Apple's case.

In short, Samsung has indicated that missing Christmas in Australia could be less of a problem for the company than rushing its defence and risking defeat on a key patent ruling.

Samsung can appeal against the decision on the temporary ban within 14 days of the release of the written judgement, due on Friday.