Samsung unveils new Galaxy Tab S tablets with vivid AMOLED display
Samsung on Thursday rolled out a pair of high-end, Android-based tablets that have a more sophisticated look and feel, with a brighter, thinner and lighter screen than previous models. It is branding the tablets as an extension of that premium Galaxy S line, by adding an “S” to the end of the Galaxy Tab name as well. “What I really tried to achieve was to give it a premium feel,” said Lee Soo-jung, a senior designer with the team overseeing the Galaxy Tab S, who says she worked to put shades of gold in the white-coloured tablet.
The company is also pouring more marketing dollars into the push, throwing for the first time a launch event for the tablets at a theatre in New York’s Madison Square Garden, a 46-year-old arena in mid-town Manhattan that is more commonly the site of concerts and home to local professional basketball and ice hockey teams. Last year, Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone at Radio City Music Hall.
Samsung declined to disclose how much it is spending on the launch; the company spent billions of dollars to promote its high-end flagship mobile devices globally in the past year. Mobile-industry experts warn it will take more than glitzy promotions and glittery devices for Samsung to replicate its success in smartphones, which are currently the company’s top profit generator.
Samsung’s global tablet market share is already growing at the expense of Apple’s, climbing to 22.3 per cent in the first quarter from 17.5 per cent a year earlier, while Apple’s share shrank to 32.5 per cent from 40.2 per cent, according to research firm IDC. But the growth of the tablet market overall is slowing significantly as penetration increases in developed markets like the US. IDC expects global tablet shipments to rise only 12 per cent this year to 245.4 million units, versus a 52 per cent increase the year before.
Tablet sales are also showing signs of being undercut by over-size smartphones known as phablets, a category that Samsung is pursuing assiduously as well. Analysts say one challenge for Samsung will be competing with myriad Android-based tablets that have equally good hardware but are cheaper. The 10.1-inch version of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S will cost $US499, while the 8.4-inch version will cost $399. Last month, Chinese start-up Xiaomi launched a 7.9-inch tablet called the MiPad that packs 16-gigabytes of memory for about $US240. Taiwanese computer maker Asustek unveiled a phone-tablet combo last month in the US for $US199 with a two-year AT&T contract.
With the Galaxy Tab S, Samsung is trying to make design the differentiator. Last month, Samsung named a new head of mobile design, Lee Min-hyouk, who is almost 15 years younger than his predecessor and credited with the design of some Galaxy smartphones. Samsung designers sweated the Galaxy Tab S details, discussing everything from whether the back should have tiny circular punctures like the Galaxy S5 to the ideal tilt for flipping through web pages sitting down, say people familiar with the matter.
But critics say Samsung muddies its premium image with its exhaustive line-up of mobile devices that come in various sizes and colours as its tries to address different price ranges. In an interview, Samsung co-chief executive JK Shin defended Samsung’s “all-segments” for “all-markets” strategy, saying “it’s in our DNA to make everything from premium products to cheap ones.” He stressed that the vast number of products Samsung manufactures is having an increasing influence on the daily life of consumers in various markets.
Bringing a better software experience to tablets also remains a challenge for Samsung. The company has packed its new tablets with features like call forwarding, which allows users to take calls from their tablets after syncing them with their smartphones, and a magazine service dubbed Papergarden, with which users can view high-resolution photos from popular fashion magazines.
For more information connect with us at Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn
