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iPad 2 prompts Samsung to rethink the Galaxy Tablet

by Dana Franklin Mar 4th 2011 at 2:30PM

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

A senior official for Samsung Electronics on Friday admitted his company would have to rethink its line of Galaxy tablets to compete with Apple's thinner, more affordable iPad 2.

"We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate," Lee Don-joo, executive vice president of Samsung's mobile division, told Yonhap News Agency. "Apple made it very thin."

Earlier this week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the second generation iPad. At only 8.8 millimeters thick, the iPad 2 is one-third thinner than the original. Impressively, the iPad 2 maintains its aggressive price points starting at US$499.

In contrast, Samsung currently offers a 7-inch tablet device that is 11.9 millimeters thick and priced at nearly $900 $600 without a 2-year contract from a mobile carrier. The recently announced Galaxy Tab 10.1 will feature a larger display and faster processor when it ships this spring, but the device is still 24% thicker than the iPad 2. Samsung hasn't announced pricing details for its 10-inch tablet, but Lee revealed the original plan was to offer it at an even higher price.

"The 10-inch [Galaxy Tab 10.1] was to be priced higher than the 7-inch [Galaxy Tab] but we will have to think that over," Lee said.

During Apple's iPad 2 announcement, Jobs claimed competitors were "flummoxed" by the original iPad's success and pricing. It seems the iPad 2 will continue to befuddle Apple's rivals in the tablet market for awhile longer or, at the very least, inspire the competition to create innovative new features at much lower prices.

Ultimately, the rumble in the tablet market will lead to more-affordable devices packed with awesomeness. And that's good for all of us --- Apple fans or not.

Apple sold a staggering 15 million iPads from April to December, 2010. Since launching its tablet in October, 2010, Samsung has sold approximately 2 million Galaxy Tabs. Forecasts predict overall tablet sales to reach approximately 55 million units in 2011. Wall Street analysts predict Apple will continue to dominate the tablet market by selling as many as 40 million iPads this year.

[via Engadget and Physorg]



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23 Comments

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woebot

Please ignore this comment, just testing the ridiculous comment system here.

March 05 2011 at 8:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BabyFaceMagee

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has better specs than the iPad2 in just about every respect from stereo speakers to better cameras to higher resolution and being lighter as well. The only 'spec' the iPad has over the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is 2mm of thickness which 99% of people would not even notice. Much more notable will be watching movies and playing music and video games in mono on the one speaker iPad2...who wants to do that. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the best spec'd Honeycomb tablet out there and we're excited to get our hands on one. http://GalaxyTabForum.com

March 05 2011 at 4:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
unwrittenrule

I like the fact that Samsung is out there with a tablet, and that Xoom thing too. Competition drives innovation. Apple, in my opinion, will most often lead the pack and that is who I am going to throw my money behind more often than not. I like the way Apple designs their products, the flow of the programs and the placement of the buttons and switches. That ergonomic flow is the same reason why I like Hyundai over Honda or Ford, some design teams just think the way I do.

Samsung may not have the fanfare or backing that the iPad do, but it's still a neat product, that will force or push Apple to better itself. And as Martha says, "That's a good thing."


As a not: Almost everything I own is Apple BUT I do not however have an iPhone, I have an HTC EVO. it's okay, suits my needs and isn't AT&T and isn't CDMA. So I'm not a blind follower.

March 04 2011 at 10:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to unwrittenrule's comment
glad

Are you mad 'Competition drives Innovation' no sir Innovation drives Innovation and thats what Apple has been doing since Steve Jobs came back to Apple he took a company on its knees and made it into a giant in the computer industry and now in the consumer market. As far a s I can see its never taken much notice of the competition as its pretty much done things its way and thats what has made it successful. There will always be detractors I can remember the first iMacs complaints over the price and no floppy drive, which now seem laughable.

You comment is what the rest of the industry do and thats copy what the competition do!!

Apple are the true innovators, the rest are just trying catch up but they are always years behind!!

March 05 2011 at 6:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt Nadler

What is truly ironic is that Samsung manufactures many of the iPad parts... touchscreen, CPU and memory....

Haha

March 04 2011 at 8:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Renzatic

My question is what the hell is in that thing to justify a $900 pricetag? Even the Xoom 3G is only $70 more than the iPad 32GB 3G. Considering the two cameras, and the extra ram, that's an understandable jump. But $900? Comeon.

March 04 2011 at 5:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff

mattpfeifer80, how about piping down on the internet bravery and not being so belligerent?

March 04 2011 at 5:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iPhone user

Mr. Lee can only fix a few of his pad's problems. Even if he makes it as thin, light, and attractive as iPad 2, he'll need to somehow "magically" lower his costs. You can't lower your per-unit component costs without high purchase volume. And he himself has said that Galaxy Tab sales to end-users have been "quite small" (plus or minus Korean-English translation subtleties.)

The rest of its problems are completely out of his control. He took the free OS bait, and Google has reeled him in. Samsung needs to make money selling hardware. Google doesn't give a poop about Samsung's profits. They only want to sell AdMob ads to advertisers. A marriage made in hell.

March 04 2011 at 3:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Montana Leet

Samsung makes me laugh. :'-)

March 04 2011 at 3:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jared

Samsung: "Uh, Houston... we have a problem."

March 04 2011 at 2:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MattyP

"In contrast, Samsung currently offers a 7-inch tablet device that is 11.9 millimeters thick and priced at nearly $900 without a 2-year contract from a mobile carrier. "

Glad to see the TUAW continue to lie about Apple competitors.

Rogers Price 649
Bell 649
Telus 649
Futureshop 624
Bestbuy 624

I know that this is an Apple fanboy website and I own and enjoy Apple products but at least get your facts right when flaming the competition.

March 04 2011 at 2:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
12 replies to MattyP's comment
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