A Samsung iPad rival is in the works, the South Korean giant has revealed, and it’s set to take on the Apple slate this year. How will it stand out against similar offerings from Asus, MSI and more? Read on for what we know so far.
Speaking to Aussie computing publication APC, Samsung IT product and marketing manager Emmanuele Silanesu revealed that a Samsung iPad tablet rival would ship “in the second half of the year”.
iPad pre-orders: one sold every second
Samsung is clearly aiming at the consumer market the iPad is courting, and Silanesu admitted as much when talking about Samsung’s previous tablet effort, the Windows fuelled Samsung Q1 MID: “it wasn’t an attractive device for consumers.”
While the specs for a Samsung iPad style tablet remain under wraps, Samsung IT division director Philip Newton revealed Samsung is tempted to opt for Intel Atom chips as seen in netbooks to power it. “An Atom-based product…has far greater flexibility, not to mention inputs and outputs. This has more potential than an iPad,” he said.
It’s an interesting move from Samsung if true, as other computing giants such as MSI and HP have been opting for less power hungry ARM processors in their tablets (and even new netbooks) rather than Intel and Windows combinations. An Intel chip and x86 architecture would also require a fan, so it might be a tad hotter than your average metal shell iPad.
We’ll let you know as soon as we get any more word on Samsung’s tablet rival to the iPad.
