Tech Radar is reporting that Amazon UK is putting the Galaxy Tab up for sale at £799 and Clove are listing it as £615. By contrast, the 64GB iPad is selling for £699.
Evidently this isn’t a rumor, because Tech Radar says: “… Samsung confirmed to TechRadar recently that the post £600 price point is indeed genuine, although it may change before launch”.
Very disappointing. I don’t see any way the Tab can compete with an iPad that has better overall specs. One has to hope for a carrier subsidy – but even that may be a problem. The Galaxy Tab has full phone functionality but everyone who buys it, or at least most everyone, will already have a mobile phone – probably a smartphone. Since the Tab won’t be the easiest thing to carry around, I can’t see people dropping their current phones to get one. There will have to be a special plan for phone-owners in order to make this thing attractive.
I wonder if we’ll find out more tomorrow at the US press event.
== Pastore’s Law of Ereading Devices ==
Inexpensive; EPUB compatible; and good: You can have two out of three.
That is astounding … a 7″ Android pad (with built-in cellphone) vs a 9.7″ iPad with all the bells and whistles of Apple and iTunes … at the same or higher price point as an iPad.
Scratch this puppy off the Xmas list.
Or maybe the real pricing comes out in a few days?
How does the Tab have lower specs? From what I can tell, it’s equal to the iPad or better.
Not knocking the Samsung device — it looks really good.
The iPad bar is high: 9.7″ screen, iTunes content, iTouch/iPhones apps, the cachet of Apple.
An Android Tablet is not yet there in the (perceived) polish of the iPad and it’s only a 7″ screen. There are fewer apps, and the environment is constantly changing — OS 1.5, 1.6, 2.1 and 2.2 all appearing within the last year and 3.0 not yet available and widely touted as the “first” Android OS for tablets … and this tab starts at 2.2.
It’s a bit of a tough sell at the same or higher price for a smaller screen and an “unknown” platform. Granted iPad is four months old but its mostly an overgrown iTouch and those have a significant history.
> The iPad bar is high: 9.7″ screen, iTunes content, iTouch/iPhones apps, the cachet of Apple.
That kind of sounds like disadvantages if you ask me. As for screen size, the Tab is more portable and has a form factor that’s more convenient for being on the go. It has the same resolution, so you actually get a higher PPI and thus sharper and clearer text.
Specs don’t sell devices. Apple knows this. Usability and functionality sells devices. Why are there almost no serious competitors to the iPod ? Why is the iPhone still streets ahead of the competition ?
Apple goes beyond specs. It also earned it’s brand name by delivering the best.
After the launch of the ipad we had a stream of predicted competitors. It was a joke. You can’t develop a product like this in a few weeks or months. It’s not september and firstly nothing serious has arrived, and secondly those that claim they are soon launching Android tablets have been warned that Android is not ready for tablets. Oooops!
The competition would be better advised to shut up and get working, quietly and seriously and see what they can come up with for 20011/12 instead of trying to rush some kind of trash out now.
I am with Howard on this one.
Google has stated clearly that Android in it’s current state is NOT TABLET READY.
Which means plainly they are not going to support it’s use for tablets as of yet.
I would be taking a wait and see on all this purely an Android Tablet mess.
If you want to have Android but buy something smart get the HTC 4G or the Motorola Droid X so you can at least consolidate a tablet type gadget and a smart phone together.
You have a very good point Howard – Apple seems to be able to to sell their devices despite their shortcomings. I think it would be fairer to say that specs only sell devices to a certain customer group.
hahaha.. Frode I am not going to let you away with that one ! LOL Apple products have never been under spec’ed. My original point was that spec alone does not sell. Apple has sold because as well as spec they have usability and functionality.
Always underspecced you mean. Take something like the iPhone’s screen – prior to the iPhone 4, it was pretty much the worst screen you could get on a smartphone. For each generation, Apple has added more hardware and features that other manufacturers already have. Facetime? Use Skype, or even 3G video calling – been available for years, and works on all 3G phones (except the iPhone). Further back, the iPhone didn’t even support MMS. I could probably come up with numerous other examples, spanning their phone and tablet lines to computers, but I think I made my point.
Yes. That you haven’t a clue what you’re talking about and somehow feel the need to correct other people’s spelling while you’re at it. Spare me.