Samsung's preliminary injunction hearing on temporarily banning sales of the iPhone 4S in Australia was to begin as early as today. However, the matter has now been pushed back until March 2012, and the preliminary injunction has been rolled up into a three-week full injunction hearing for a permanent ban on the iPhone 4S. As a result, Apple will be free to sell the iPhone 4S in Australia through at least next spring. This development follows on the heels of Samsung's announcement yesterday that it will no longer seek an injunction against the iPhone 4S in its home country of South Korea.  

We don't know all of the reasoning behind this postponement in Australia, but it's likely that Samsung simply felt it needed more time to put together its complete case against Apple. As we pointed out last Friday, Samsung was just given access to the iPhone 4S source code less than a week ago, and it's been unable to get all of the information it requested on Apple's agreements with telcos in the region. 

In any event, the judge in Australia will give Samsung and Apple the actual March trial dates this Friday.