Ever Seen One in the Real World?
Samsung has sold two million Galaxy Tab tablet computer — just not to you know, to actual people. The Wall Street Journal‘s Evan Ramstad has the story:
during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Friday, a Samsung executive revealed those figures don’t represent actual sales to consumers. Instead, they are the number of Galaxy Tab devices that Samsung has shipped to wireless companies and retailers around the world since product’s formal introduction in late September.
Pressed by an analyst at an investment bank, the Samsung executive, Lee Young-hee, acknowledged that sales to consumers were “quite small,” though she didn’t give a specific number.
A quick Google Shopping search shows that the Galaxy Tab can be found for well under the MSRP — not a good sign for Samsung.
Actually, I have a friend who owns a Galaxy Tab. It’s a slick little device; the smaller form factor definitely makes it easier to carry around than an iPad. That said, I don’t own one and I have no plans to buy one.
I was at CES last month, and the general feeling was that Android tablets really need the newer ‘Honeycomb’ version of the OS to compete with the iPad. The current OS + current hardware in the Samsung tablet is a little slow. The new tablets that should be shipping within the next few months should perform much better (faster, longer battery life, etc.)
Disclaimer: I work for a company (not Samsung) that has a financial interest in this market, so I’m not unbiased.
More about the newer tablet-centric OS (Honeycomb) can be found here: http://gizmodo.com/5750148/using-googles-android-30-tablet-the-first-real-ipad-fighter