Tag Archives: Samsung Galaxy Tab

Before Apple’s stock price soared to even greater heights this week thanks to strong iPhone sales, growing services revenues, and rumors of spectacular devices to come, we got the bad news about iPad sales. During Apple’s quarterly sales call two weeks ago, we learned that sales were down 19% percent and revenue down 22% over last Q1, meaning not even the impressive iPad Pros have been able to overcome the forces of market saturation, slow upgrade cycles, and the encroachment of large screen smartphones.

Tim Cook keeps telling us that Apple remains committed to the platform, and to their credit, Apple has kept adding form factors and features to the lineup (and we hear more are on the way). However, the iPad’s glory days seem a distant memory, and it is now clearly a secondary device to the company’s true money maker- the iPhone.

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iPad Rivals

Recommended: Kevin Tofel’s Reasons for Selling His iPad

January 22, 2011 Patrick Jordan 8 Comments

I haven’t changed sides. I’m not thinking of starting a Galaxy Tab blog. But I still want to highly recommend Kevin Tofel’s post at jkOnTheRun on why he has sold his iPad and why he’s found the Samsung Galaxy Tab to be the perfect tablet for him.

Tofel has always been one of my favorite tech writers to follow. He strikes me as offering the perfect combination of being a flat-out geek, a very smart and objective writer expert on a wide range of tech subjects, and just a tremendously good writer as well. His post on leaving the iPad and moving to the Tab is a great example of all of these qualities. Here’s just a small slice of it:

THE BEST TABLET IS THE ONE YOU HAVE WITH YOU

The Tab is roughly the same size as, but thicker than Amazon’s Kindle, which ironically I sold when I got my iPad. Prior to iPad ownership, my Kindle would go everywhere with me because of its small size, light weight, stellar battery life and integrated connectivity. And I do mean everywhere: the device would fit in my jacket pocket or could be thrown — figuratively, not literally — in the car or in a gear bag. The Galaxy Tab offers me that same level of portability, while the iPad doesn’t.

The whole article is well worth a read when you have a chance:

http://gigaom.com/mobile/why-i-just-dumped-the-ipad-hint-size-matters/

I’ve always felt mostly on the fence about the whole 7-inch vs. 10-inch tablet subject, and Apple’s stated stance against the smaller tablet. Seeing Tofel’s appreciation of the Galaxy Tab, and that of some of my friends at Gear Diary, makes me hope that Apple may consider the smaller form factor at some point.

What do you all think about smaller tablets? Would you like to see Apple introduce a smaller model at some point?

iPad Rivals

Recommended: iFixit’s Galaxy Tab Teardown

November 15, 2010 Patrick Jordan

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is the first real ‘iPad rival’ tablet device to hit the market. It hasn’t been around for long, but the guys at iFixit have already got their hands on one, and given it their usual dissection treatment. As always, their teardown makes for interesting reading.

Some bits and pieces that caught my eye:

There’s a full gig of RAM, 128 MB of Samsung OneDRAM, and 384 MB of Mobile DDR within the same processor package, in addition to 16GB of SanDisk NAND flash storage. If you’re counting, that’s 1.5 GB of total RAM and RAM-like caches.

Sweet. I’d love to see the next iPad model pack in a lot more RAM than we currently have (a measly 256MB).

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iPad Rivals

Gizmodo Slams the iPad’s First Rival

November 10, 2010 Patrick Jordan

Gizmodo has reviewed the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, the first ‘iPad rival’ tablet to hit the market. To say that Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo’s reviewer, isn’t impressed with the Galaxy Tab is a huge understatement. The review title dubs the device a ‘pocketable train wreck’.

Here’s just a little slice of what Buchanan doesn’t like about the Galaxy Tab:

This thing is just a mess. It’s like a tablet drunkenly hooked up with a phone, and then took the fetus swimming in a Superfund cleanup site. The browser is miserable, at least when Flash is enabled. It goes catatonic, scrolling is laggy, and it can get laughably bad.

The iPad has been a massive hit and already has a huge head start on its rivals. It looks like the competition is going to have to do much, much better if this review ends up being anything like the typical view on the Galaxy Tab. Check out the full review here:

http://gizmodo.com/5686161/samsung-galaxy-tab-review-a-pocketable-train-wreck

iPad Rumors & Myths

First iPad Rival Priced at $399 with Contract?

October 11, 2010 Patrick Jordan

Gizmodo has got hold of a ‘leaked slide’ that shows initial pricing for one of the first iPad rival tables – the Samsung Galaxy Tab. According to the slide, the Galaxy Tab will go for $399 with a new two-year contract on T-Mobile.

The contract part of that is a big disadvantage when compared to the iPad, but the initial price point is not too shabby and the device appears to have a strong set of specs and features.

Via: Gizmodo