According to tech analyst firm ITG, 15% of consumers who’ve purchased the Samsung Galaxy Tab from a U.S. carrier have returned it.
According to tech analyst firm ITG, 15% of consumers who’ve purchased the Samsung Galaxy Tab from a U.S. carrier have returned it.
The picture regarding sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has gotten muddier. First the company crowed about sales of one million, then two million tablets. Then, speaking to press, a Disturbing new research has emerged that claims that up to 15% of the new Samsung Galaxy Tab have been returned with consumers claiming that they are “not happy”.
Research Company ITG claims that in the two-month period between November 16 and January 16, the Galaxy Tab was returned by consumers at a rate of 15%. “Consumers aren’t in love with the device,” said Tony Berkman, a consumer tech analyst with ITG. No specific reason has been given by the research Company as to why consumers are returning the Android device which according to Samsung Australia executives was in limited supply in Australia due to strong demand.
Last week a Samsung executive in Korea let slip that actual sales to end users were “quite slow” and that the huge sales numbers the Company had originally bragged about were really shipments from Samsung to retailers, not to end users.
The return rate on the Apple iPad during the same period was 2%.
It’s expected that Samsung will update their current model 7″ Galaxy Tab to the new Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system in Australia within the next few months.
One reason speculated about the high returns is that the current model Galaxy Tab is running Android 2.2 Froyo which is not optimised for the tablet form factor and that users, who are only partially satisfied with the user interface have immediately got a reason to return it, knowing that a more capable system was on the way.
Another reason being speculated according to InformationWeek is that Motorola announced its Xoom tablet in early January at the CES trade show, giving Tab owners another Android tablet option — one that will support 4G, one that will have a bigger screen, one that has dual-core processors, and one that supports Android 3.0 Honeycomb.
