Samsung, Google Cancel Launch Event Out of Respect for Steve Jobs

Well, Apple isn’t stopping its launch of the iPhone 4S, but Samsung and Google have decided to postpone an event announcing their next jointly-developed device because of the death of Steve Jobs.

The pair had been scheduled to announce the first phone based on Ice Cream Sandwich at an event Tuesday, coinciding with a wireless industry trade show in San Diego. However, on Friday the companies announced that the event was being postponed to an unspecified new date.

Sources said the companies just felt it was the wrong time to hold a launch event, as the world continues mourning Jobs, who died on Wednesday.

“Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11,” Samsung said in a statement. “Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product.”

Although the event was being hosted by Samsung, Google’s Andy Rubin had been scheduled to speak.

The decision to postpone was made late last night at the top levels of both companies, sources said, with Jobs’s death being the reason. There are no delays with the product itself, sources insisted.

Jobs’s death has provoked a global outpouring of support, including tributes from many of those with whom Apple has clashed, of late. Adobe, for instance, had a tribute to Jobs on its home page, while Microsoft lowered its corporate flag to half-mast at all offices across the world.

UPDATE 9:04 am PT: In an updated statement, the companies confirmed they were making the move out of respect for Jobs.

“We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing,” the companies said.