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Samsung beats Apple to second tablet computer
Yoon Boo-keun, head of Samsung's TV division, watches a video at the Samsung keynote address on the opening day of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 6, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking
BARCELONA, Spain |
BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Samsung launched a second tablet computer on Sunday, with a bigger screen and more processing power than the original Galaxy Tab that is seen as the only real rival to Apple's iPad.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is intended to be a multimedia hub for afficionados of games, electronic books and social media, with a 10.1 inch (25.7 centimeter) screen, dual surround-sound speakers, and front- and rear-facing cameras.
The tablet, with two core processors to better handle media, is based on the latest Google Android platform, Honeycomb -- which has been optimized for tablets.
It will be sold by Vodafone in more than 20 countries before being released to other carriers.
Samsung, now the world's second-biggest phone maker after Nokia, also launched a new premium smartphone, the ultra-slim Galaxy S II, designed around hubs for social networking, reading, games and music.
South Korean electronics giant Samsung, whose telecoms division accounted for nearly half its profit last quarter, has sold around 10 million Galaxy S smartphones since its June 2010 debut, and 2 million Galaxy tablets.
It still has a long way to catch up with Apple, which sold more than 7 million iPads and 16.2 million iPhones last quarter alone, but is gaining ground on Nokia, which announced a crucial tie-up with Microsoft on Friday.
"If I were (chief executive) Stephen Elop heading up Nokia, I would be looking over my shoulder at Samsung and feeling extremely nervous," said Ben Wood, lead analyst at telecoms research firm CCS Insight.
Samsung also announced a range of enterprise services compatible with its two new devices, to address some of the security concerns that have held Android phones back from a serious challenge to Research in Motion's <RIM.TO BlackBerry.
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
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The features listed are in every way an improvement over Samsung’s previous effort. Yes, Nokia should be concerned about Samsung’s growth. That doesn’t mean that this new offering will be able to sway large numbers of prospective iPad 2 buyers, though.
While Samsung can point to Honeycomb/dual-core/neat HW, they still have a long way to go to convince general users (not talking about extremists – Apple fanboys, nor Android-no-matter-the-bother geeks either) that they have the superior choice.
As full disclosure – I own more Samsung stock than Apple. I’d love to be proven wrong. It just seems that the holistic picture (app stores, number of apps, ease of use, features, support) still seems to have a distinctly Apple-ish tint.
They have not “sold…and 2 million Galaxy tablets.” The company itself has clearly stated that they have 2 M into channel inventory but that they have not sold anywhere near that number to customers. So your statement is clearly false – that is – it just is not true.
This makes your very headline questionable. They did not “beat Apple to a second tablet – they are really just producing their first.
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