A premium $999 price tag has been put on the new 7″ Samsung Galaxy Tab in Australia. The Android based device which is set to go on sale with all three major phone carriers in Australia in October is more expensive than the 32GB Apple iPad.Tipped originally to be significantly cheaper than the iPad, Samsung executives claim that their product is superior to the Apple offering despite it having limited Android applications”.
The high price, has surprised many executives as it is more than 50 percent above the starting price of A$629 for the Wi-Fi only version of Apple’s iPad, which has a 9.7-inch screen compared with the 7-inch display on the Galaxy Tab.
A 3G and Wi-Fi version of the iPad costs $799 (16GB), $929 (32GB) or $1049 (64GB). However reports suggest the cheaper Wi-Fi only version is the biggest seller.
The Galaxy Tab has a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 3G and Wi-Fi connections, two cameras, a microSD card reader and 16GB of storage.
“We have a size advantage because it fits in a pocket, it is a mobile and it has a USB port. It’s also has a camera’s and a flash which the iPad doesn’t have” said a defiant Tyler McGee, as Vice President of Telecommunications at Samsung Australia.
“We have a premium product and we believe this is a fair price”. He added.
When it was pointed out that there were limited applications for the new Samsung Galaxy Tab he quickly pulled out a device to demonstrate a beta game running on the device. “This is one of Apple’s top selling games and as you can see it runs perfectly on the Tab. We will also deliver books and magazines to the device” he said.
It’s also emerged that the Australian version may be updated to the latest version of Google’s Android OS, Android 2.2 Froyo sometime next month, according to Samsung executives.
The new Samsung Galaxy Tab which will go on sale in Australia has a 1GHZ processor and a four inch Super AMOLED WVGA display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab also comes with a five megapixel camera, a social hub user interface, A-GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0, integrated 802.11.
