The Korean company Samsung Electronics has come out with a new version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its own backyard, the South Korean market, in a renewed attempt to take on the current market leader, the iPad from Apple.
"As our smartphone business grew very fast within a very short period of time, I believe it's just a matter of time for our tablet business to improve,"
JK Shin, head of Samsung' mobile division, told in.Reuters.com.
About 14 million iPads were sold by Apple in the first half of 2011, whereas it is estimated that Samsung sold about 7.5 million units of Galaxy Tab in the entire 2011. Samsung is the nearest thing to what Apple can call a rival, and the company could become an Apple rival because of easy access to core tablet components and chips, thus increasing its cost competitiveness.
The upgrade has come at a time when the two companies are fighting a legal battle in which Apple claims Samsung has been copying its product designs for its Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Samsung, in return, counterattacked against Apple by asking for access to forthcoming Apple products iPad 3 and iPhone 5. The request was not granted, but the ferocity of the fight became quite clear with these moves.
In a news, the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be sporting a MicroSIM card which means it is doing what iPad has done earlier.
Prices of the new version of Galaxy Tab starts at $500 (about Rs 22,000), just like iPad 2 from Apple. Samsung believes it would be able to increase its tablet sales by five times, though it didn't give out any specific numbers.