Samsung

Samsung decided not just to tease but to irritate Apple with the launch of a precise clone of the Cupertino’s Smart Cover for iPads. For its Galaxy Tab 10.1 the South Korean firm started selling absolutely similar covers with even similar name “Smart Case.”

This week Toshiba introduced its Thrive tablet that comes with a spacious 10.1-inch touch-screen display and version 3.1 of the Google Android (Honeycomb) operating system. Besides, the device features a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, and 1GB of RAM.

A tablet that is aimed to compete Apple and Samsung in the market comes with 1280x800 screen resolution, a rear-facing 5.0 mega-pixel camera, a front-facing 2.0 mega-pixel camera for video chat, SWYPE input, USB and HDMI ports, integrated GPS, memory expansion via microSD. Moreover, the tablet will support Adobe Flash.

New rumors appear in the media sources that Apple is developing the next generation iPad along with the speculations on the iPhone 5. Bloomberg reported: “Apple is also testing a new version of the iPad that has a higher resolution screen, similar to the one now used in the iPhone 4, one of the people [familiar with the plans] said.”

Then Bloomberg adds: “The screen resolution on Apple’s new iPad would be about one-third higher than that of the iPad 2 and will boast a more responsive touchscreen, one of the people said.”

Huawei Technologies announced its 7-inch Android-based tablet PC in Singapore on Monday and said it has plans to launch a 10 inch device to compete with Apple and Samsung.

The chief marketing officer of Huawei unit Huawei Device Victor Xu said the company plans to be among the top five handset vendors in three years time, a market currently dominated by the likes of Nokia, Samsung and Apple.

Samsung is partnering with Nouvoyance to create a display for tablets that could save ¾ of energy consumption when providing a more dynamic color palate. The PenTile WQXGA display would offer a 2560 by 1600 resolution with quality image.

The PenTile display uses larger subpixels with one pixel completely clear. Such a design allows the backlight to shine more light through. It also enables the larger sub-pixels to be more effective since fewer transistors are needed to power the display.

A US court was asked by Samsung Electronics to force Apple to hand over their next generation iPhone and iPad on allegations that would be more proper than the previous court’s decision.

This month U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh ordered Samsung to give Apple copies of several models of its Galaxy mobile phones and tablets, as well as other products.

South Korean company Samsung Electronics filed its own lawsuit against Apple accusing the Cupertino giant of infringing 10 patents. Earlier Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung claiming the Samsung's Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets "slavishly" copies the iPhone and iPad.

Being one of the most rapidly growing smartphone makers Samsung poses a fierce competition for Apple in the tablet market. Galaxy series tablets produced by Samsung are built on Google's Android operating system, which directly competes with Apple's mobile software.

According to the Wall Street Journal Samsung Electronics Co. has filed a suit against Steve Job’s Apple. In the papers submitted by Samsung, the company charges Apple with infringement of patents covering Samsung’s 3G technology that reduces date-transmission errors and the patented technology allowing to connect phone to the PC and to use its wireless data connection. Also, it was said that Apple used Samsung’s transmission optimization technology which allows reducing power usage during transmission.

Samsung Electronics is sued by Apple Inc on allegations that the Korean company violated Apple’s patents and that its Galaxy line of mobile phones and tablets "slavishly" copies the iPhone and iPad.

Samsung emerged as the strongest competitor to Apple unlike other rivals who produce tablets too. Samsung’s Galaxy products are built on Google Android OS but Apple’s lawsuit targets Galaxy's design features.

John Jackson, an analyst with CCS Insight, said Samsung is essentially Apple's only real tablet competitor at this stage.

According to the data from research firm Strategy Analytics the global tablet computer market is set to grow to a $49 billion business by 2015.

The tablet computer market will become the third largest consumer electronics sector, after televisions and personal computers, the research firm said, forecasting 149 million units will be sold in 2015, growing eightfold from 2010.

"Tablets are a high-value casual-computing segment that is creating huge growth opportunities for major brands, such as Apple and Samsung," said analyst Neil Mawston.
 

Droid smartphone community blog Droid Life reported some speculations about Samsung’s plans to release a Wi-Fi only version of the Galaxy Tab on April 4th for a price of $399.

However, some observers believe that the price tag no longer is competitive because since the announcement of the iPad 2 old Apple tablets went down to the same price level while Motorola also plans to release its Wi-Fi only version of Xoom tablet this April.

It should also be noted that the new Galaxy will likely come on Android 2.2 version.
 

New stats from comScore revealed that for the three month average period ending January 234 million Americans used mobile devices. Of these Samsung was the top handset maker with 24.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up 0.7% compared with the three month period ending in October. LG came second with 20.8%, followed by Motorola (16.5%), RIM (8.6%) and Apple (7%).

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is launching an ultra thin notebook in a move to increase its presence in the mobile PC market dominated by the Cupertino based Apple Inc.

The South Korea’s electronics maker is one of the strongest rivals matching Apple in the industry of smartphones and tablet computers.

Samsung is to rival Apple iPod Touch with its new media player that has a look resembling early Touch versions.

Dubbed as Galaxy S WiFi 4.0, a brand taken from other Samsung products, the player features 4in, 480 x 800 LCD touchscreen, 1GHz processor, 0.3Mp and 3.2MP cameras, 2.4GHz 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0 and GPS.

According to the reports the player is built on Android 2.2 Froyo platform and can link both to Google and Samsung app stores.

While customers can select out of 8, 16 and 32GB models, they can also extend the memory using Galaxy’s Micro SD slot.

Samsung decided to stir the imagination of consumers and placed an ad on the Samsung Mobile website promising the arrival of "something big" on Feb. 13, which also shows an obscured image of the upcoming device next to the Samsung Galaxy S. Nothing more is provided: no details and no technical specs.

Meantime, observers speculate that the product may be one of those demonstrated at CES including an unnamed LTE (Long-Term Evolution) phone with a 4.3 inch screen and the Infuse 4G with a 4.5 inch screen.