A senior Samsung executive said portions of the company's new Android-powered GalaxyTab 10.1 tablet are "inadequate" in light of Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iPad 2.
"We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate," Lee Don-Joo, Samsung's executive vice president of its mobile communications division, told Yonhap News Agency. "Apple made it very thin."
The iPad 2 is 8.8 mm thick while the GalaxyTab 10.1 is 10.9 mm thick.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad 2 Wednesday; the device goes on sale March 11 with support for AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ). Samsung introduced its GalaxyTab 10.1 tablet last month at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, and expects to begin selling it in the coming months.
Lee did not indicate what Samsung will change or when the changes will occur. He did say, however, that Samsung might reconsider its price for the GalaxyTab 10.1, which runs version 3.0, or Honeycomb, of Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android platform.
"The 10-inch (tablet) was to be priced higher than the 7-inch (tablet), but we will have to think that over," Lee said. Samsung introduced its 7-inch GalaxyTab in the fall, and all four Tier 1 U.S. carriers support it. Currently, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) sell it for $300 with a two-year contract, T-Mobile USA sells the GalaxyTab for $250 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail in rebate, and AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) sells the gadget for $550 without a contract.
The Wi-Fi-only versions of the iPad 2 will retail for $499 for the 16 GB model, $599 for the 32 GB version, and $629 for the 64 GB version. The models with cellular connectivity will be priced at $629, $729 and $829 for the 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB version, respectively.
For more:
- see this Yonhap News Agency article
- see this Wired article
- see this Engadget post
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