Samsung who is set to launch their 10″ Galaxy Tab in Australia early next month, is set to cut the price from what they originally planned for the device say sources, in an effort to take on the iPad 2 which launches on March 25th.On Friday the Korean media said that Samsung was going back to the drawing board, after Apple’s iPad 2 announcement, due to design and function issues, however a new statement was issued last night claiming that Samsung was continuing with the launch of their 10.1 tablet.
A carrier source told ChannelNews that they are expecting a head on battle” between the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the new Apple iPad 2 and that the “go price of the 10.1″ Samsung Galaxy Tab” was being adjusted from what was originally given to carriers.
Samsung Australia has said that the new device will ship to retailers in April.
 |
| Samsung US Invitation sent to All Things Digital |
Executive Vice President Lee Don-Joo is quoted by Korean newspaper Yonhap as saying “We will continue to make every effort to provide the most powerful, well-designed and productive mobile device to customers,” as saying.
A Samsung spokesman said that their launch plan for the Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1 has not been affected, but declined to say when the device will ship.
This is not the first time that translations of what Samsung Korean executives have said have caused a problem.
Last month an issue blew up when the Company was reported as saying the sell-out had been slow and later reports contradicting that. (That didn’t stop Apple CEO Steve Jobs from using the original quote in his slideshow at this week’s iPad 2 launch in San Francisco).
The issue for Samsung is that Apple has made its device super thin, while managing to keep prices the same as iPad 1.
Samsung certainly isn’t giving up on tablets. Indeed, the company hinted on Friday that it will soon add another member to the Galaxy Tab family, which already includes the 7-inch model that has been on sale since last year.
An invitation to journalists for an event at the CTIA show in Orlando in the USA later this month suggests that a 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab model is also on its way.
The invite makes several references to “78910? and since Samsung has 7-inch and 10-inch models, it seems logical the “89? part refers to an 8.9-inch model. A Samsung representative declined to comment on that interpretation of the invite.
