The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a keenly awaited tablet, which is set to enter the market within one week in some stores, though officially it will be launched by the company only on June 17. While, the 3G version of the tablet will arrive in the market later this year.
The tab is set to challenge the supposedly indomitable Apple iPad 2, which is being currently sold from thousands of retail stores and about 300 Apple stores across the world.
As the name itself suggests, the tablet has a 10.1 inch capacitive touchscreen besides a 1 GHz dual core processor, storage options (of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB), a 3 Megapixel back facing and a 2 megapixel front facing camera and much more. The latest Honeycomb (Android 3.1) operating system powers the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Moreover, the Samsung tablet is said to be thinner than iPad 2 by 0.2 mm. Thus, going by the features, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 does seem a worthy opponent for iPad 2.
However, the Apple tablet has its own share of advantages and despite arrival of several contenders, which came with better specs, it continues to hold on to its market share. Third party support is one of the biggest advantages of Apple, which means there are numerous additional features available for Apple products which are not made by Apple, but are still an inseparable part of the experience. Despite coming from the same family, in terms of additional add ons, Apple does provide choice to the users — a good sticking point.
While talking about choice, it’ll be convenient for users if we took the example of chat facility. There are more chat options for Samsung Galaxy Tab users whereas Apple has FaceTime. But the iOS devices offer apps like Skype, whereas the Android apps are mostly designed for smaller screens. The iOS devices also provide access to numerous apps, and the Android apps numbers do not match up.
The iPad 2 also faces threat from Toshiba which is set to launch it tablet, named as Thrive, within a month or two. To create the hype, Toshiba has chosen to poke fun at the iPad 2, though it remains to be seen how this strategy pans out in the real world.