The world of tablets officially has an iPad contender thanks to a Samung Press Release this morning, outing the Samsung Galaxy Tab GT-P1000. First and foremost, the Samsung Tab ships with Android 2.2 and features a pocket-able 7-inch display. If the Apple rumors are accurate and a 7-inch iPad is released early next year, the battle for the ultra-portable tablet market will be power struggle between Android and iOS. Other notable specs include 802.11n, 900/1900/2100 MHz 3G HSPA, 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM-GPRS-EDGE, Bluetooth 3.0, Cortex A8 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 3MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash, 1.3MP front-facing camera and your choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal memory with the option for up to 32GB via memory card. The Samsung Galaxy Tab will be released in Europe in mid September, and in other markets including Korea, the U.S. and Asia in coming months.
The only hiccup I see with the Samsung Galaxy Tab is that Android 2.2 is fine for the September European release, but in the following months, Android 3.0 should be readily available. The fragmentation within Android is growing each day a new device is released and it does not ship with the latest build. Android 2.2 is nice, for now, but based on the performance on the EVO 4G I was disappointed and would have preferred the initial build sans Adobe Flash support. From a style perspective, I think the Samsung Galaxy Tab is favorable, but ultimately it is almost a clone of the current generation iPad. It is a bit ironic that most of the opponents to the iPad complained about the thick bezel around the screen and despite that market research, Samsung has mimicked the iPad design.
