Apple Inc would learn as soon as today if US president Barack Obama and US Trade representative Michael Froman already made a decision. Obama and Froman were expected to intervene to allow Apple to keep on selling iPhone 4 and iPad 2 in the US.

The president and trade representative were both given until August 4 midnight Washington time to cancel US International Trade Commission's import ban on Apple products. On June 4, the commission discovered that older Apple devices violated Samsung's patent on how data was transmitted.

"I would hope that if he decides to wade in, that he would do so in a way that aims for more reasonable and coherent intellectual property policies to remove some of the gamesmanship," Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said. "That would be a lot more helpful than if it was seen as protecting a U.S. company versus a Korean one."

Apple and Samsung dominated the US smartphone market.  Samsung was able to sell 72.5 million units during the second quarter compared with Apple's iPhone sales of 31.2 million units. However, Apple remained the leader in the industry with 53% of total profits from the US market in contrast with Samsung's 50% share.