Apple may need to reveal iPad data

Apple may have to reveal iPad and iPad 2 sales figures in the UK and US to improve its chances of barring Samsung Electronics from selling the Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer in Australia, a judge said. Apple's claim that the Samsung tablet's release in Australia will hurt iPad sales may carry little weight if it doesn't provide the numbers, Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett said in Sydney Federal Court Tuesday. "Unless Apple puts on evidence showing the impact in the US or UK, I can't draw any positive assumptions," Bennett said. Bennett said she would not force Apple to release the sales numbers and denied Samsung's request for them. Apple aims to block Samsung sales of the Galaxy 10.1 in Australia, claiming the tablet computer infringes its patents. Apple is seeking an injunction on Samsung sales in Australia until the patent suit is resolved. Samsung wanted the sales figures to show that the UK and US release of the Galaxy 10.1, which runs Google's Android operating system, had little effect on iPad sales. The Australia dispute is part of a battle spanning three continents between Samsung and Apple, which claims the Galaxy devices copied its iPhone and iPad. A hearing on Apple's request for the injunction is scheduled for later this month in Sydney Federal Court. Not impacting sales "People want an Android product, so they will buy an Android product," Neil Murray, Samsung's lawyer, told the judge. "This is not impacting the sales of Apple." The ‘remarkable similarity of the Samsung product' in terms of ‘functionality and appearance' makes it obvious that the Galaxy will take sales away from Apple, said Steven Burley, the Cupertino, California-based company's lawyer. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung had agreed to defer the launch of the Galaxy 10.1 to the end of September to let Apple's request for the injunction be heard. In the US, Samsung is arguing that Apple stole the design for its iPad from the Stanley Kubrick 1969 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Dell to partner Baidu Dell Inc. plans to partner China's top search engine Baidu Inc. to develop tablet computers and mobile phones, targeting the Chinese market now dominated by Apple Inc and Lenovo devices. China is one of the fastest growing markets for tablets and is home to more than 900 million mobile phone subscribers. Analysts said the tie-up could be Dell's way to revive its flagging tablet business. "I suspect this is just Dell, who has a lot of problems on the mobile and tablet front, grasping at straws to get any kind of publicity that it can to make its product more attractive," said Michael Clendenin, managing director of technology consultancy RedTech Advisors. "Ultimately in China, I still think it is Apple's game, still for the iPad and iPhone." Dell declined to give a timeline for the launch of the devices, but local media reported yesterday, quoting sources, that it may be as early as November. "We have a partnership with Baidu and you know we have the Streak 5 tablet, so the partnership will be in that space," a Dell spokeswoman told Reuters yesterday, adding that both companies were also cooperating on the mobile handset front. Dell's Streak 5 tablet is a five-inch Android-based tablet that was discontinued in the United States last month. The Dell tie-up underscores Baidu's efforts to widen its product offerings and leverage its near 80 per cent share of the country's search market, the world's largest. Baidu launched a new mobile application platform last week and offered a glimpse of its upcoming mobile operating system which it hopes will serve a growing number of users accessing the internet from smartphones and tablet computers.