Samsung Puts Brakes on Nexus as Tributes to Apple Founder Continue

Samsung Electronics and Google have decided to postpone their launching event for the Nexus Prime smartphone in the wake of the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs last week. The launch was scheduled to be held on Tuesday (local time) in San Diego, California.

In an e-mail sent to the press around midnight on Saturday, Samsung said it had reached the decision as it would be inappropriate to hold the launch event given the "circumstances."

Samsung and Google joined hands to develop the Nexus Prime equipped with Google's yet-to-be-unveiled operating system, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.

"We thought it would be improper to hold a large celebratory event when one of our biggest rivals has lost its founder," Samsung said. "Although we're entangled in a bitter legal battle over intellectual property rights against Apple, we need to observe propriety."

However, Samsung said it will continue to seek injunctions against Apple's iPhone 4S in France and Italy.

No schedule has yet been set for the postponed event. "We have not yet decided whether we will release the product with less fanfare or go ahead as planned just on another day," Samsung said. Either way, the new handset and software will be rolled out within the year, analysts said.