Samsung Postpones Ice Cream Sandwich DebutSamsung Postpones Ice Cream Sandwich Debut

Samsung offered an official statement late Friday morning announcing its decision to postpone a press conference, which was to be held Tuesday in San Diego at the CTIA Wireless trade show.

Samsung representative Kim Titus said in an emailed statement, "Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11."

"Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product. We would ask for the understanding of our clients and media for any inconvenience caused. We will announce a new date and venue in due course."

Neither Samsung nor Google offered any insight as to what "the current circumstances" relates to, but speculation is that the event has been delayed out of respect for the passing of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. That's a nice sentiment, no doubt, but certainly not expected or necessary.

[Steve Jobs didn't innovate with the enterprise in mind, but he had a profound impact on business technology leaders. Hear How Steve Jobs Inspired IT Execs.]

Google's past Android system update presentations have taken clear shots at Apple, the iPhone, and iOS. Google's Android team enjoys having a little fun at Apple's expense when on stage. It could be that Samsung's and Google's teams felt they needed to rework portions of their presentation in order to not seem offensive. (This is pure speculation on my part.)

It could be that they just want to let the current news cycle, which continues to be dominated by Jobs' passing and the iPhone 4S announcement, play out. I would certainly understand if Google and Samsung each want more of the spotlight and attention from the tech press on them. There are certainly plenty of distractions at the moment.

Whatever the underlying reason behind the delay, it looks like we're going to have to wait to learn about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

When might the event be rescheduled? I'd look for something to land on the calendar by the end of the month.