Samsung Galaxy Tab Android Tablet
So, Android tablets are really nothing new. Dozens of mostly Chinese firms have been churning out Android-OS-based tablet devices for months now. Some are better than others, but the openness of the Google Android platform has already led to significant innovation in the tablet computing marketplace. Now, a major consumer electronics player, Samsung, has entered the US market with the backing of all 4 of the major US wireless operators. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a sleek 7.5 by 4.7 by 0.5 inch Android 2.2 device with a 7-inch multitouch screen. The specs sound good. It’s got a great screen, two cameras and a fast processor. The chief drawback appears to be the price: $600. You can get the Galaxy for $400 if you’re willing to sign a two-year contract for wireless service. If you want to go online using the wide-area wireless service from one of the four carriers, you can expect to pay $20 to $50 a month.
For many uses, the 7-inch form factor is superior to the larger 10-inch iPad. I’ve been playing around with a super-cheap Chinese Android tablet with a similar form factor for a few months now, and I really like the fact that you can easily hold it in one hand and it is an almost perfect size for reading ebooks. In fact, the overall size of both the Galaxy Tab and my Eken M001 are very close to that of the latest generation Amazon Kindle.
Evidently, you can’t currently make Skype calls with the device, although Samsung claims it’s working on a fix to this problem. That would seem to be one major drawback, since otherwise, this would make a nice integrated mobile communications device. I believe the bottom line is that we are going to see a lot of these devices hitting the mass market in the next 12 months. Interestingly, some of the key players introducing Android-based tablets are going to include the current ereader vendors such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. While tablet devices with a broader range of functions are almost certain to supplant the standalone ereader, these devices may ultimately be an evolution of the ereader as opposed to radically different devices.
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