Most techies understand what the Steve Jobs meant to Apple. What some may not realize is that some of Apple’s biggest competitors understand what he meant to the entire consumer electronics field. Google and Samsung (News - Alert) were all set to make a major announcement next week but the two companies have now agreed that they should postpone the announcement out of respect for Steve Jobs (News - Alert).  

Sources close to both companies say that the decision to delay the major presentation – one that was designed to take the wind out of Apple’s sails – was not postponed because of problems with their tech. Both Samsung and Google (News - Alert) simply understood that trying to one up Apple just a week after losing one of their co-founders simply would not be the right thing to do. The product that the two companies were planning to unveil next week is reportedly a new Nexus Prime smartphone that is running the Android (News - Alert) 4.0 (otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system. This particular phone promises to be quite the highly popular product and the two companies are definitely taking a bit of a hit by delaying the news.

Because the tech world is a high paced, highly competitive world, there are those who are feeling a bit skeptical that the companies are truly doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. What those who do not believe that the companies would put this on hold do not seem to realize is that this is not merely a softhearted move by their CEOs. The tech world is filled with customers who are quite loyal to a brand and feel as though the people who made the product are part of their extended family. Trying to upstage the news in the wake of Apple’s new iPhone (News - Alert) 4S as well as Steve Jobs dying could be seen as oddly callous by the very people Samsung and Google are trying to reach out to. Google has already laid the groundwork for those who are expecting Ice Cream Sandwich. While delaying the announcement may lose them some time on the front end, it can also build excitement and a bit of good press to boot.