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Samsung have announced that they will delay the release of their new smartphone by way of paying tribute to Apple co-creator Steve Jobs, who lost his battle with cancer on October 5.

The Korean giants told the BBC that they will not release the Nexus Prime on October 11, as originally planned, as the world is still paying tribute to Jobs.

The Nexus Prime will be the first phone to run Google's latest Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich.

This new OS introduces a range of new features, including face-tracking and camera focus-changing based on voice recognition.

Samsung and Apple have a close relationship, as the former serves as one of the latter's key component servers, but the two companies have been locked in a number of recent patent disputes, with courts in ten countries having to adjudicate in tit-for-tat intellectual property lawsuits, as each firm accuses the other of using technology without permission.

Apple has previously managed to have Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in Germany and the Netherlands, on the basis that the device copies the iPad.

In retaliation, Samsung have put in place plans to seek a block on sales of Apple's new iPhone 4S in France and Italy.

Initally scheduled to rival the iPhone 4S, Apple will have the smartphone market to themselves for the time being, as there is currently no confirmed release date for the Nexus Prime.

A history of mobile phones...