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SAN
JOSE, Calif. — The death of Apple Inc. co-founder
Steve Jobs prompted Google Inc. to postpone a product
announcement planned with Samsung for next week, the
Mountain View, Calif., search giant confirmed Friday.
The
event was reportedly going to be the unveiling of the
new Nexus smartphone, the first phone expected to be
equipped with the newest Android iteration, dubbed Ice
Cream Sandwich.
Though
a Google spokeswoman would not confirm that was the
focus of the event, she did say that it was put off out
of respect for Jobs, the legendary Silicon Valley leader
who died Wednesday.
“Last
night, a decision was made by both companies to postpone
the event,” Shari Yoder Doherty told the San Jose
Mercury News.
The
product announcement was scheduled to be held jointly
with Samsung at the CTIA Enterprise&Applications
trade show in San Diego on Tuesday. While Google
declines to specifically state the product that was
going to be announced, Doherty did say that there were
no issues with the product that forced the postponement.
A new date for the event was not announced.
The
newest version of Android is expected to combine the
smartphone and tablet versions — dubbed Gingerbread
and Honeycomb, respectively — into one operating
system that works on all Android-based mobile devices.
Previous versions of Android have debuted on Samsung’s
Nexus line of phones, including the Nexus One (Android
2.1) and Nexus S (Android 2.3).
Apple
announced Tuesday that its new mobile operating system,
iOS 5, will debut on Wednesday. That announcement was
part of the Cupertino, Calif., company’s product
launch of an upgraded iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S, and was
the first major product announcement helmed by new CEO
Tim Cook, who permanently took over the company when
Jobs stepped down for health reasons in August.
When
Jobs died the next day at age 56, Google founders Sergey
Brin and Larry Page both paid their respects publicly on
the Mountain View company’s new social network, Google+.
Jobs
“was a great man with incredible achievements and
amazing brilliance,” Page, Google’s CEO, wrote.
“My
thoughts and Google’s are with his family and the
whole Apple family.”
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