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Google has stopped selling the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone through its website… at least temporarily. The move comes a few days after a judge granted Apple a preliminary injunction banning Galaxy Nexus sales in the US, pending a trial. Samsung appealed that decision, but the appeal was turned down.
The ban could be lifted if Samsung is successful in proving non-infringement at the full trial, but Google and Samsung are already working on another way around the ban.
The Verge reports that Google plans to begin selling the phone again next week.
It’s possible that the company plans to get around the patent infringement by issuing a software update that will remove some of the search functionality in Android 4.0. The patents Apple says Samsung is infringing upon involve software, not hardware (this time).
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus isn’t Samsung’s only (or top selling) smartphone. But as a Nexus device, it was designed in close cooperation with Google, to showcase Google’s latest Android software. It was the first phone to ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and in a week or two it’s expected to be the first to receive an over-the-air update with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
A permanent ban on sales would be a bit of a blow to both companies.
While Google isn’t selling the Galaxy Nexus right now, stores with remaining inventory can continue to sell it. You can pick one up from Amazon, J&R, and other retailers — although most are charging more than the $350 Google was asking for the phone.
You can also always find good deals at eBay, Swappa, and other sites that sell used, refurbished, and occasionally new phones and other gadgets.
I’ve read that the software patch would limit search to web only. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. As a user I would be more than happy with the search box divided into two areas — one for *web search* and one for *device search*. After all, I usually know when I want to find something on my device Vs the web. In fact I often don’t like it when it pulls up stuff on my device when I’m starting a web search and vise versa.
that would likely still violate the patent 🙁
I’m certain this is only temporary, and once they can prove the patent is invalid due to prior art, the search bar will be back to normal 🙂
I’ve read that 4.1 corrects the whole “universal search” issue, but don’t know for a fact. . . or exactly how.
I do believe, from reading the patents in question, that my suggestion would be OK. The reason, you would no longer have a single input field for both device search and web/server search. It would be two input fields — from what I’ve read on the patents that is a key part of the patent, ONE input field.
hopefully we will be able to search our devices soon enough and this “universal search” patent will be invalidated due to prior art: https://www.theverge.com/2012/7/4/3136453/prior-art-to-universal-search-patent