Samsung confirms slate PC in the works
By Laura June 
posted March 16th 2010 4:02PM
posted March 16th 2010 4:02PM
posted March 16th 2010 4:02PM
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The best price/feature/performance ratio tablet I've seen so far is the Notion Ink Adam. No other tablet even comes remotely close with what it offers. Until then, the only other tablet-device that looks as interesting is the Courier. And only if it comes with Super AMOLED screens.
@Prevacator
And Apple will continue to dominate the mobile/tablet world until someone else understand that the price/feature/performance ratio is not what MOST NORMAL people (i.e. not you) are looking for.
Usability and ecosystem (apps, accessories, music and other media) are the key to Apple's success and I'm always surprised that so few understand that and that many keep talking about performance and features.
Microsoft Win Phone 7 and Courier are interesting concepts indeed, but there is a long road from concept to reality.
@majipoor continue to dominate? you kidding me right... apple dominates in mobile RIM has bigger market share, also apple don't have a device in table category so it can't dominate. It does have iPad, but is it out yet?
I really miss my Q1 Ultra with Win7, *sniff* , maybe I will skip the joojoo if this pans out.
@Dking7
Dominate lead in market share for me.
Apple dominate, because all mobile phones are compared to the iPhone. And Apple will dominate the tablet market for the very same reason: this is not a fact. just my guess. See you in 6 months for the facts.
@majipoor
Hum... strange forum behaviour here: I've writen "Dominate is not leading in market share for me."
@majipoor While I do agree with you, it's the UI and Apple's current high standing that will make the iPad a success, I do think Price is still key. If the iPad came out at $999 instead of $499 then it'd fail. They've had to cut it down (hardware wise) and software wise to an extent (the iPhone UI is sleek but is a toy compared to OSX) to get it to a saleable price range. They also had to wait for technology to allow it to be cheap enough. One reason Samsung and other UMPCs failed is cos they were all around $1500. It's why netbooks sold in millions and Sony TT & other ultraportables while admired sold in thousands. The surprising thing is that it's Apple who are normally so expensive that have come out with the first affortable tablet.
PCs have a large enough ecoSystem to crush Apple even still despite people finding the iPhone easy to use. If a PC manufacturer could bring out something that's the tablet version of a netbook that was also good looking there'd be some interesting competition.
@Dking7. the ipad might not be out but it's approaching fast. and by the time Samsung etc have something to put a firm date on, folks may have given in to the ipad if only due to impatience
@Hark1
price/performance/features are important indeed , but these are not the most important points.
And I don't agree that there is a huge PC ecosystem: for me, an ecosystem requires a strong integration between all components which is not the case in the PC world or in mobile world.
Apple control everything in the iPhone/iPad ecosystem: it is the reason why many hate them here on Engadget, but this is also the reason why Apple is so successful because you NEED to control everything to prevent your ecosystem from being a big mess.
Have a look as the MS strategy with Win Phone 7... looks like the strategy from another fruity company.
@Hark1
It really boils down to these guys learning to run some commercials and letting people know they exist.
I've never known a single tablet PC or UMPC or Slate manufacture to ever run a single TV ad. It's insane!
@majipoor
ipad is not a tablet, it's a big MP4 with a mobile OS. a real tablet uses a computer OS and has features of notebook form factor
@jdm28690
Call it whatever you want: I don't see the difference it will make. Call it a iCrap if you want: it won't prevent it from being a success and the next Apple's Big Thing :)
@majipoor
Said that yesterday and I got downranked madly. Some ppl here hate the truth. They had Hanvon tablet here yesterday and the thing was so ugly it could eat itself. But boy some of us here can't take the truth when it's laid out on the ground for us. Apple knows how to play the game, simplicity, and attractive content since they know that average person whouldn't give a turdbit about 1080p so long as they see a clear video, Won't give a crap so long as they turn on and off their device (average ppl don't care about colour adjutstment buttons).
Companies need to learn how to cater to ppl in a better way. I hope this is the beginning with Samsung and others follow suit.I hope we can have a better competition soon. Can't wait for this baby to come out along with HP slate then I'll decide which one to take. Avoiding iPad simply bcoz it will be a closed system.
@majipoor
Of course, Apple will dominate the tablet market if competitors are going to answer with steaming piles like this Samsung. What the hell is that company thinking? Some poor consumer will take one look at that brick and run screaming in the other direction. It's just some Windows PC barely compressed into a tablet. I've no doubt it's very functional and powerful but will have little to no appeal to the average consumer.
I already own a slate PC from Samsung. Love the thing. Had it for years
@hero785 While I am tempted to be an optimist like you, I'd venture that Samsung will only be open if it runs windows/android, and I think that is the two most likely choices. However, with Bada they have already announced 2 things:
First anticipation of selling 10M Samsung Waves (just their first phone on the OS) worldwide
Second selling apps through a closed ecosystem
If they want to mirror Apple in the Samsung sort of way, they will go with the latter, especially if Bada is meeting sales projections and will give them something of a distinguishing characteristic.
The one bright side of option #2 is, even if we have more closed ecosystems than we currently have, I think that still gives more power to consumers than 1 really large, closed ecosystem.
@majipoor
I'm actually gonna have to agree...I hate the idea of windows of any form on a touch device....android is just well....lacking in the app dept...so iPad really seems like the only true contender as of now.
@Hark1
and yet people are completely accepting of Android as a large screen format...it is a stripped down Ubuntu.
atom, meh
This + Emulators would be extremely fun.
Erm... I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. It's almost like someone photoshopped a concept - it's.... "interesting". It's strange. It could work. But forcing my hands to type independently from one another, so far away and without crossing over - may not work well.
One thing for sure - like the thin bezel on the north and south.
@whySoSerious Lawl, that is a pic of one of their first FAIL attempts..
@whySoSerious Yeah.. they can hardly claim to be the first with this idea either, Microsoft had that origami thing (I think it was called that) that had the really cool dual sided on screen keyboard thing, and then nokia had the qwerty double-ended slide phone..
This looks like bigfoot had a blackberry, an ibm thinkpad, a ps2 controller and a windows XP install disk for breakfast then took a dump.
@sshole That is a picture of the Samsung Q1 Ultra, introduced at Cebit 2007.
http://www.umpcportal.com/products/Samsung/Q1%20Ultra/Q1U-CMXP
It is just too funny when Engadget dusts off some photos of tablet devices that have been around for years, and everyone starts criticizing the design as "antiquated". Yeah, because it is 3 years old.
Samsung was "one of the first" in the UMPC game. When Microsoft introduced the origami concept at Cebit 2006, Samsung was hot on their heels with the introduction of the Q1 in Oct 2006. They were beat to the market (slightly) by OQO and Raon, but that still makes them one of the pioneers.
The hardware keyboard on each side is probably Wibrain's innovation, which was adopted by the next generation Samsung tablet.
@tmarks11
Hardware keyboard was more from the Pepper Pad.
@tmarks11 lol yeah I actually realized that a little while later :/
I stand by my description of how it looks though
@nedy78 I didn't remember Samsung Q1U having the slanted keyboard like that, either. But it does. Look at the picture from the attached link. It is identical.
http://www.umpcportal.com/gallery/v/q1ultra_001/Q1+Ultra+2.jpg.html
@whySoSerious That Samsung unit is one of the few successful UMPC's. It sold enough that it was profitable for Samsung.
I'm not quite sure why anyone is surprised that they'll be making more.
I work in best buy mobile and we use one of these for contact transfers... they are somewhat decent but Samsung made these before there was a big enough hype and Best Buy bought them up for our employees to use. Hope it works out better for them the second time around... we treat ours well and have had to replace it twice in the last year.
Newton, get it?
I'm still debating with my girl what tablets we should get, right now it's the courier or the mini 5, I don't need another distraction
Dual Joysticks??
Now we're talkin!!
just another UMPC from samsung like years ago.
Yeah, just another UMPC from Samsung; what makes them think they will sell any better in this decade? Maybe it will sell better now that all the Apple haters are looking for an alternative to the iPad.
@willengage
there were no atom CPU back then though, if they use a pixel Qi screen to make a slim & light umpc and price below $500, they might have a chance this time around.
the empty UMPC concept from microsoft which shows promo video playing halo turned out to be too weak, too heavy, battery life too short and priced way too high.
@willengage
Well it's obvious the tablet PC "haters" aren't in the market for one. That's for sure.
Isn't that a little obsolete style to give a tablet hardware keyboard now?
@rushyang I think Samsung came to that conclusion when they introduced their last version of their tablet last year, the Q1EX. No keyboard, just a bare 7" slate.
I don't think losing the keyboard helped their sales.
Personally, I hope somebody brings the OQO form factor back to life with a ULV processor. Much more useful.
Absolutely love the form-factor.
I take it the Q1 was killed?
apple coughs and everyone follows... apps*, appstore*, tablets, touch phones* , own ecosystem, silver frames on devices, unibody, case design desktops, built in webcams, multitouch for this and that. ithis ithat.
other than that, thank god slate/tablet No: 3543515845347681306746341
@shizzledmg
Another fanboy, another assumption That Apple invented tablets.
(sent from a tablet)
@LAY mostly it's not a question of who invented what (point missed) it's a question of the accomplishment and the how! actually everyone follows the apple way and that's a fact.
so fanboy or not, these are just the facts.
@shizzledmg
I'm sorry, didn't you just say "apple coughs and everyone follows"?
So in essence a device one knew existed spawned devices, many of which were previewed before the existence of this thing was known.
So everyone "followed" something that happened after they did it.
I know you guys want to attribute every wonderful thing in the tech world to Apple, but now you are trying to apply that silly "logic" retroactively.
@shizzledmg
What I find humorous about your comment is that apple wasn't the first to do a single thing you mentioned. While there will no doubt be some people that will try and follow apple's example, there are many companies that have already done this stuff and will continue to no matter what apple does. Samsung has made tablet/UMPCs before, and because they are making one now, you think it has something to do with apple..
@zsmorr Actually, I think you need to go back further in history, when Apple was the first to fail at marketing a tablet. The Newton.
The form factor is really good.
Now we only need a decent low-power SOC in it like the Tegra2.
I would even buy this instead of the Notion Inka Adam because the hw keyboard like thisn can make the tablet much more powerful for writing emails, blog entries and such.
In before Apple Sues Samsung over making a Tablet
That's cool.
These are like the exact devices heralded a couple years ago that everyone has been thinking never happened after much hype.
Maybe the battery, processing power and other tech have caught up enough now to make them viable.
I hope so....
If they function well enough I think they will be sweet devices to have around to couch surf and travel with.. maybe lug for the daily grind.
I had the original Q1 Samsung back on 06,
This company paved the way for Apple and others with their revolutionary slate devices.