The companies jointly announced in a statement released a few hours ago that they have scraped the widely anticipated October 11 San Diego launch of the Nexus Prime, Samsung’s Android-based smartphone running the new Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Does it have something to do with Steve Jobs’ passing on Wednesday?

It might. But people are already speculating that it does because of this:

Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.

If Jobs’ funeral is to be held around the same time as the previous launch date then it may be inappropriate to create media hype over a competing device.

Steve has given us so much and it wouldn’t be fair to eclipse his legacy like that.

But, there could also be further adaptation taking place to the device now that the newly unveiled iPhone didn’t do everything it was expected to do.

Or, it could be something to do with the on-going patent infringement war between Apple and Samsung.

Techland’s editor, Doug Aamoth, thinks it’s just because the original launch presentation took too many jabs at Cupertino, and they need time to remove all the jokes.

Either way, the Nexus Prime is going to be an interesting product when it does eventually hit the market.

[Source: Techland]