HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Tab claimed the No. 2 position among tablet PCs in China but trailed far behind its archrival Apple Inc.’s iPad, a poll showed Tuesday.

According to the poll by market researcher Searchina Shanghai Co., the Galaxy Tab gained 16.6 points in terms of consumer preference, ranking second among 10 tablet PCs manufactured by multinational and local Chinese firms.

The iPad was a distinct leader, garnering 53.6 points. Sony’s Tablet ranked third with 13.4 points, followed by the world’s largest PC maker Lenovo Group’s LePad with 7.3 points.

Tablet PCs produced by Motorola Inc. and Taiwan’s ASUSTek Computer Inc. were in the negative range.

The survey was conducted on 433 Internet users in China. The response scale ranged from negative 60 to positive 60, with negative numbers meaning not preferred and positive numbers preferred.

Samsung Electronics and Apple have been waging a series of legal suits against each other, vying for a bigger stake in the $219 billion global mobile device market.

The two tech giants have been blaming each other for patent infringement in design and technology patents on iPad, iPhone and Galaxy series.

The dispute has bulked up into a patent battle spanning 10 countries on four continents. The latest round of their patent war kicked off in Australia on Monday with a court there beginning a hearing expected to last three months.