Amazon.com in the U.K. has slashed the price of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab by 200 (US$312) for pre-orders of the device, which is aimed at taking market share from Apple's popular iPad.
But the new price for the Galaxy Tab, 599.99 ($933.31), still leaves it more expensive than the iPad, which retails in the U.K. for 429. It appears Amazon is trying to find a good price point for the Galaxy Tab. Earlier this week, it was listed with a 679.99 price. The Samsung Galaxy Tab will be released in the U.K. on November 1, Amazon U.K. says on its website.
A slew of new tablet devices will be entering the market against the iPad over the next few months. Companies hope that these devices, many of which use Google's Android mobile OS or Microsoft Windows 7, will be able to sway consumers into choosing them over the iPad. It won't be easy.
Apple has managed to popularize a product among consumers, tablet computers, that has failed miserably in the past. Sales of the iPad totaled 3.27 million at the end of Apple's third quarter, just months after its release. Companies that plan to launch tablets, including Asustek Computer in Taiwan, have said they will benefit from the trail the iPad has blazed because the iPad has stoked consumer interest in tablet devices.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab has a 7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1024 by 600 pixels, a 1GHz A8 processor and 16GB of storage. It will run Android version 2.2 and can be used to surf the Web, watch movies, read e-books, navigate using GPS and even make phone calls. It has a MicroSD card slot to expand storage capacity.
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