Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) Debuts At $399.99; Will The Company?s 'Price Drop Strategy' Impact Sales Of Apple?s New iPad?

If you are a Samsung tablet fan, then your long wait is over, as the much delayed Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) is finally up for preorder and the tablet will hit the retail shelves in the US by May 13.

The specs and features of the new tablet are not much different from its predecessor, except the big screen and few other minor feature updates. But, surprisingly, the Korean tech giant will offer the new tablet at considerably low price points. The tablet's preorder started at online retailers like Office Depot at a price of $399 May 4.

The Korean tech giant launched the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) back at the Mobile World Congress held in February and then the company promised to release the tablet in the market around April. However, the launch got delayed and rumors got rife that the company was in the process of upgrading the processor of the tablet to quad-core and hence had stopped the production of the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1).

At the same time, speculations also got widespread that Samsung would launch the 8GB version of the tablet at $399 when the Engadget report mentioned that Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) got valued by Office Depot at the same price without any details on the market release date. But now, leaping across this rumor, the company has shocked all with their recent announcement that the 16GB version of Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) would cost just $399.99 and similarly the other advance versions are expected to be priced.

Hence, the big question over here is - Will the Samsung's new 10-inch tablet with less than a $400-price tag could make a difference? Especially, when the sales of Apple's new iPad are concerned?

As of now, the sale figures of the new iPad are soaring high and it is becoming really difficult for other Android tablet players in the market (the most relevant Amazon Kindle Fire) to give a stiff competition to the Retina Display device market share. This can be said, as International Data Corporation (IDC) recently came out with a preliminary data report which said that Apple conquered 68 percent of the total tablet market share, whereas there was a steep drop in shipments of Android-based tablets.

According to IDC, the total worldwide media tablet shipments for this quarter reached 17.4 million units in Q1 (1.2 million units below IDC's projection for the quarter). 11.8 million Apple iPads were shipped during the quarter (down from 15.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011). However, on a brighter side, the company grew its worldwide share from 54.7 percent in 4Q11 to 68 percent in 1Q12 thanks to the unveiling of the new iPad this March.

On the other end, Amazon, which stormed into the market in 4Q11 to grab second place with 16.8 percent of the market on shipment of 4.8 million units, saw its share dipping significantly in the first quarter to just over 4 percent, falling to third place. Samsung took benefit of Amazon's weakness to regain the number two position while Lenovo vaulted into the number four spot, followed by Barnes & Noble at number five.

Hence, as Samsung has reached the second position, it seems that the smart tech manufacturer is very close to the prime position.

And after IDC, one more renowned data research firm has come out predicting the future of the tablet market in the coming years. NPD DisplaySearch has released a new data report which predicts that the tablet sales are on track to outpace laptops by 2016 and Apple's iPad is projected to hold on to the lead until at least 2017.

However, the report notes that the iPad would not dominate by a large margin in the next five years. According to DisplaySearch, Apple's share will drop from 72.1 percent in 2012 to 50.9 percent in 2017. As, the Android-based devices will emerge eventually and will pick up the slack, growing from 22.5 percent of the market this year to 40.5 percent by 2017. Hence, there seems to be scope for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) to impact the sales of Apple iPads, and to follow on the same rivalry line, the Korean tech major has adopted the price drop strategy to lure the consumers.

The new iPad was released with the following price tags -- 16 GB: $499, 32 GB: $599 and 64 GB: $699. Further, the new model came with variants triggered with the LTE capability. Hence, the in that case, the price tags are $629, $729 and $829 respectively for the 16, 32, and 64 GB variants.

Further, when the new iPad 3 was launched, Apple slashed the price of iPad 2, giving it a new price tag of $400 for 16GB Wi-Fi only and $530 for Wi-Fi + 3G.

Hence, what do you think? Are you a smart consumer and fully aware of the capabilities of a $200, $300 or $400 tablets present in the market?

Here is a detailed comparison of the both the hot tablets.

Dimensions And Weight

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) will carry a profile of just 256.6 x 175.3 x 9.7 mm and it weighs around 588 grams. On the other hand, the new iPad has dimensions of 241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4 mm and weighs about 652 grams (Wi-Fi Only) and 662 grams (Wi-Fi + 4G).

Processor

It has been confirmed that Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) will be powered by a fast 1GHz dual-core processor and the device would be loaded with its unique TouchWiz panel.

While as an improvement to iPad 2 dual-core A5 processor , the New iPad runs on a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU and Apple A5X chipset. A PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU has been added to give some extra boost in the performance.

Operating System

Apple's new iPad, which is the successor to the second generation iPad and has got iOS 5.1, boasts a support to all the high-end specifications of the previous model.

On the other hand, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) will run on Google's latest Android 4.0 operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich which will offer the users with easy multitasking and customizable home screens. The tablet will feature a redesigned user interface with a new app gallery layout, embedded Google applications, a Face Unlock feature employed with a facial recognition software, and access to a wide variety of multimedia through Samsung Hub services.

Display

iPad 3 is at par with the rival competitor as it boasts the LED backlit Retina display which comes power-packed with 2048 x 1536 pixels of resolution at 264 pixel density with 44 percent increased color saturation and an astounding 3.1 million pixels. The next gen tablet has a 9.7-inch screen display.

On the contrary, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) would feature a slightly larger screen of 10.1-inch with PLS TFT display and a resolution of WSVGA (1024x600pixels) offering a pixel density of 149ppi.

Camera

Concerning this segment as well, Apple has done a remarkable job, as it has brought a major improvement to the new iPad's camera. While iPad 2 cameras (0.7 MP backside and VGA front side) have always been at the center of criticism, the latest tablet sports a 5 MP rear camera that comes with welcome features like iSight and CMOS sensor setup, auto-detection, flash, HDR and face detection and a host of other improvements and with video capabilities of 1080p at 30fps and video stabilization. A front-facing secondary VGA camera is also available.

On the other end, Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) has a camera which is limited to 3 megapixels with LED flash, autofocus, geo-tagging and 720P video capture. Moreover, it would also feature a VGA camera in the front which would offer a high quality video calling as a result.

Connectivity

Similar to the Galaxy Tab 2(10.1), the latest version of Apple tablet is also not a complete redesign of its predecessor, but it surely has taken the advantage of faster 4G wireless technology. Further, the new iPad baseband chip covers it all from EV-DO to HSPA+ and LTE.

However, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2(10.1) lacks 4G LTE capabilities and the tablet will be available only in 3G and Wi-Fi variants. However, the tablet will come accompanied with improved speakers and up to 50GB of free space on Dropbox, at least for the first year.

MicroSD Card Slot

Initially, it was informed that the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) would be rolled out in two variants - 16GB and 32GB - which would be expandable up to 32GB using a microSD card. But now, the company has only confirmed about the 16GB as far yet.

This is a feature which all iPad lovers wanted to see in the latest device, but Apple disappointed its fans once again. And whether it is the predecessor or the new iPad, Apple doesn't offer expandable memory option. However, it does offer variants. The new iPad is available in 16, 32, and 64 GB variants.

Battery Life

Galaxy Tab 2(10.1) is equipped with a 7,000 mAh battery (up from 4,000 on the 7.0), which will hopefully ensure stamina that is similar to its predecessor.

However, for the new iPad, the company claims to support a sufficient battery life of nine hours. Without LTE, it would run up to 10 hours.