In the growing firmament of the tablets category, there will soon be a new Galaxy. According to information based on a firmware update for the not-yet-released P1000 Galaxy Tab tablet computer from Samsung, the new device could become one of the challengers to the undisputed king of tablets, Apple’s iPad.
Specs from the new firmware, first announced by a blog named Samsung-Firmware.webs.com, indicate that the tablet will use Android 2.2 and have a 480×800 screen, front and back cameras, an ARM11 CPU running at 1.0 GHz, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Galaxy name relates it to the company’s Galaxy S smartphone line.
Third-Party Applications?
The date on the firmware was August 2010, and the Galaxy tablet is expected to be released in the third quarter this year. According to industry rumors on the web, Vodafone UX will carry the Galaxy Tab, and the tablet itself will be unveiled in early September at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.
The tablet was confirmed in a Wall Street Journal interview in June with a Samsung executive. The new information presents the apparent specs and release date.
Tablets are becoming, or may soon become, good friends of wireless carriers in Europe and the U.S. In part, this is because they are built on mobile operating systems, such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s open-source Android. The iPad, for instance, is in many ways a larger version of the iPod touch. If tablets become the dominant mode for personal and possibly business computing, carriers could become the main conveyors.
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst and partner with the Altimeter Group, said “if the rumor leaks are accurate,” the Galaxy tablet’s specs are impressive. A key question, he said, is the degree to which the Android-based device will have access to Google’s Android Market and its growing library of applications.
Gartenberg also pointed…