EXCLUSIVE: 24 hours after Samsung won the right to sell their Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, SmartHouse can reveal that a brand new Android 4.0 version of the tablet–complete with an 11″ 2560 x 1600 resolution ‘Retina Display”–will be revealed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.The device was confirmed by Samsung executives in Korea to SmartHouse and will be thinner than the current model which will appear in Australian shops this week after Samsung won their battle with Apple.
According to sources, Samsung is well aware that Apple is planning to launch a brand new iPad 3 in the second quarter of 2012 and as a result is moving to stop Apple grabbing “rampant” market share by launching what we have been told will be a “superior tablet”.
We have been told that the new Samsung tablet will come with several new applications including Telstra’s TV application that will deliver live TV access to over 2,500 movies and later in the year Foxtel.
Another application will allow consumers to control a Samsung TV and attached home theatre device. Also built into the tablet will be Samsung’s new music streaming service which is being delivered in partnership with EMI.
Under the bonnet the new tablet will have the all new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, complete with Google’s new Beam technology and a brand new 2GHz processor. The Android Beam is a NFC based technology which allows users to share videos, apps and web pages by simply linking two devices together.
Samsung sources have told SmartHouse that the Korean company will show a range of new TVs that have the NFC technology built in at the CES Show in Las Vegas in January.
This technology allows Samsung TV owners who also have a Samsung tablet or NFC enabled phone to link the devices for high speed data transfers such as movies and video.
We believe that Telstra executives who recently visited Samsung in Korea demonstrated their new TV application working on one of the new NFC enabled TVs and a tablet.
The Android Beam technology is designed to compete with Apple AirPlay technology.
SmartHouse understands that Motorola will launch a new Android 4.0 version of their Xoom tablet along with the Telstra TV app and the new Android Beam which will be enhanced to stream content quickly.
In recent months Samsung has struggled to get their 10″1 Tab to market with some analysts claiming that it is overpriced considering that it is close to the end of its life.
Apple went to the Federal Court seeking bans on the device claiming that the 10.1 tablet infringed on at least three iPad patents.
However, Apple sought special leave for an appeal to the High Court last week, claiming it would suffer “immediate and irreparable harm” should the rival Tab be made legal, on the grounds that the device infringes on its intellectual patents and “slavishly” copies the market leading iPad 2.
Apple argued against Friday’s judgement, saying it was “replete with error” and that the original injunction banning the device was correct.
One of the High Court Judges declared Apple was only granted the preliminary ban by the “skin of its teeth”.
The court had found that the original judge, in granting the temporary ban, didn’t properly weigh up the strength of Apple’s case.
