Information Madness

In a bid to capture the tablet market, Samsung recently unveiled the Galaxy tab. Samsung’s tablet has been launched in order to capture a share of the tablet market from today’s dominant tablet, Apple’s iPad. WP Wong, head of Samsung’s Mobile product planning team claimed that the Galaxy tab is in many ways stronger than the iPad.

The features of Galaxy Tab include picture taking and video chat with cameras mounted in the front and back. The weight of the Galaxy Tab is considerably less than the iPad.

The Samsung device weighs 380 gms (0.8 pounds) in comparison to the iPad that weighs 680 gms (1.5 pounds) without 3G and 730 gms (1.6 pounds) with it. Samsung has high expectations from its Galaxy Tab and Samsung Mobile president JK Shin defined the device as a “...true paradigm shifter”. The shipping in Europe is to begin on late September or early October and by December in the US.

However, market analysts say it will be tough to beat the iPad in competition. Research firm iSupply analyst Rhonda Alexander said on the competition that Apple’s collection of individual features make it stand against its competitors in a crowd. The battery life features of galaxy Tab shows that the product is competitive with respect to the iPad.

The Galaxy Tab will be able to play HD video for 7 hours on a single charge and perform other less strenuous tasks at for more than 10 hours. In comparison, Apple’s iPad can stay active for 10 hours running a combination of video, book reading and web surfing. Other prominent feature of the Galaxy Tab includes Flash player 10.1,that offers more opportunities to download games over the internet.

The Galaxy Tab will include Android 2.2, called Froyo, that can be upgraded to Android 3.0,called Gingerbread. However, the next version of the Android operating system, known as Honeycomb will not be available for the Galaxy Tab.

The Galaxy Tab can indeed be understood as an extra large smart phone device. The device will be distributed through carriers, Verizon being a probable option. Samsung did not reveal prices, but hinted that the prices will be competitive.

Samsung has planned a business model to go through global telephone operators and the final prices will be arranged only after discussions with the rate plan operators. The device has a 7 inch , 1024 X 600 Pixel LCD display screen and a reader application that enables the user to browse through 1,600 newspapers, 2,500 magazines and 2 million books. Besides reading magazines and books, the device can be used for playing music and Video in different formats, send and receive emails and perform video chatting functions.

Samsung has also collaborated with Google to ensure that the device is rich in apps.