After Apple introduced its ultrathin iPad 2, Samsung claims to have gone back to their drawing board (which likely has iPad diagrams and schematics permanently embossed upon them).
“The company had just shown a new 10-inch tablet a couple weeks earlier, but quickly realized its product was a bit bulky to compete,” Ina Fried reports for AllThingsD. “‘We went back to the drawing board,’ said Samsung Mobile executive Omar Khan, noting that the company already had some things cooking in its research labs. ‘We will not be outdone. It accelerated some of the commercialization of technology we already had in the works.”
MacDailyNews Take: We will not be outdone by iPad 2 thinness, only by its unit sales.
Fried continues, “Barely a month after showing the first 10.1-inch tablet, the company had a new, thinner [8.6mm] design ready to announce. The actual devices, however, won’t ship until summer. Indications that the products are still a work in progress abound at the Samsung booth. Although the company has working units of both the 8.9-inch and 10-inch tablets at its booth, all are in older, thicker shells. Even the working versions of the 8.9-inch model, which was only ever introduced in a thin casing, bears remnants of the older, thicker design.”
“And perhaps even this design is not final,” Fried reports. “‘Product design and specifications are subject to change without notice or obligation,’ reads a sign next to the product.”
MacDailyNews Take: “V-A-P-O-R” in 100-foot-tall, neon-lit letters. In other words: “We actually have been outdone by iPad 2 thinness, but we’re going to baselessly claim otherwise anyway.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Make your big pronouncements when you have an actual product to ship, Omar. This article posted from an 8.8 mm thin iPad 2; available in U.S. stores today (if you can find one) and 25 more countries starting at 5pm local time on March 25 (again, if you can find one). BTW: If 0.2mm is going to be your big selling point, you might as well just quit while you’re way, way behind.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple’s iPad 2 arrives in 25 more countries this Friday; Available in Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore in April – March 22, 2011
Apple’s iPad 2 freaks out Samsung; says Galaxy Tab specs, pricing ‘inadequate’ – March 4, 2011
Pretty sure if you focus on specs – like you always have – you’ll be trailing like always.
It’s not about the specs!
Shhh! Don’t tell them, because they’ll never figure it out on their own!
As much as I agree that specs aren’t everything, thinness isn’t really a spec it’s more of a physical quality and it does matter, like weight. Customers can see and feel the difference between a fat piece of crap and a thing sleek, light weight iPad. That being said, a 0.2mm difference is not going to be something that customers can easily see. Customers cant see RAM or processor speed, but they can feel how fast the device operates. If the iPad can operate more quickly and smoothly with less RAM and processor speed, then the customer won’t care how theoretically fast your competing fat piece of crap is.
0.2 mm is 0.008 inches – less than the thickness of two pieces of notebook paper. No one will notice that. Specs don’t even matter that much since it’s the software (OS and apps) that really make the difference.
“Barely a month after showing the first 10.1-inch tablet, the company had a new, thinner [8.6mm] design ready to announce. The actual devices, however, won’t ship until summer. ”
Way to go! If I were stupid enough to buy your product I’d still be smart enough to understand that you were telling me NOT to buy one now. That is what you’re trying to say, right?
Apple, taking there cue from Steve Jobs, create an Ultra thin iPad.
Samsung, taking their cue from Steve Jobs in the very distant future, create something DOA.
Samsung, like Microsoft, will not be outdone by Apple-Ever!
If Apple can design it, they can copy it. Simple.
Out done never. Out Innovated? Yup.
Considering Apple is now worth more than Microsoft and that Samsung had to go back to the drawing board, I think the outdoing has already happened.
when will these companies realize it’s NOT the hardware (although helpful), it is the software and the whole ecosystem that supports them
the best hardware that money can buy is useless unless backed up by excellent software and accompanying extras… these people offer none of those (certainly not yet)
Actually, it’s the hardware and software that makes a good product. They are both equals.
The bigger they talk, the harder they fall.
Yeah, and Bill GAtes thought that Apple wouldn’t be any competition in the color dept either……..
Clueless idiots, its not all about color, or all about thin. Those may play a small part in the overall picture, but the UI and end user experience is the real measure of a product. A thriving eco-system of apps and media never hurts either.
LOL, I hadn’t read any of the posts before I made mine below….
They are, and will be, undone by everything about the iPad, thinness included.
To preview future events here, simply rewind iPod history. The iPhone as well, once the courts rule on Android’s theft of patented technology.
…if it was only about the thickness, I have a pad of paper to sell.
But I have a half a pad of paper I’m selling! It’s thinner! It’s cheaper!
Kinda sad that they needed Apple to send them back to the drawing board. Why can’t they introduce a thinner product to begin with, if they have the ability to do so.
Perfectly illustrates a key difference between Apple and the rest of the pack. Apple pushed the limits not because they have to keep up, but because it is in their DNA to lead.
Because they were getting ready to ship and thought their crapware was good enough and could compete with what they thought was going to be just another version of iPad 1. iPad 2 sent them back to the drawing board and now they won’t have product to ship until this summer – if they’re lucky. Android only flourished in the US because of AT&T iPhone exclusivity. To get an idea of how Android tablet market share’s gonna pan out, look at the iPhone vs. Android market share on AT&T. I don’t think Android tablets will even reach that level because they can’t give away tablets like phones.
That’s really the crux of it. No one can compete with Apple on price (read that sentence again…) and only a subsidized phone has any hope of competing with an iPhone. Take away the subsidy and there isn’t a contest, which is why we’re seeing so many Android tablets with mandatory 3G.
All this says is that Apple sets the bar, and the others focus on individual parts, but not the whole.
Reminds me of the Lenovo exec that tried to put their new laptop in a manila envelope after the MBA was announced.
Sheep go maaaaaa
Is Omar the new Ballmer?
No. There can be only one… and long may he reign at Redmond.
I am fairly certain, that is the wrong thing to be going after apple with…
Thin will come at the expense of battery life or margins.
Impressive minefield SJ has laid for these also-rans.
Absolutely.
Here’s the title, and I’ve added a few lines to make the story accurate;
“Samsung: ‘We will not be outdone’ by iPad 2 thinness, but our Tablet battery will last 10 minutes.
The UI will still be kludgy.
There will be few apps, and we won’t be allowed to call them “apps”.
Our Tablet will break, crack, discolour, chip, and delaminate.
The price will appear competitive at first blush, but once the mandatory contract is factored in, our Tablet will cost 5 times as much as Apple’s iPad.
If you carry our Tablet into a room full of iPads, you will still look very uncool.
Oh, and we WILL be outdone by iPad 2’s thinness.”
NHL,
You’ve pinned down the ultimate fsckwittedness of Omar Khan’s statement: it’s not the width or the depth. It’s the total user experience.
Until/unless Samsung and the also-rans get that it into their head, Apple can relax. However, the other problem for the also-rans is that relaxing isn’t part of the Apple DNA.
Here’s what I don’t exactly understand: How can Samsung be an important supplier of one or more key components to Apple (presumably receiving confidential product, scheduling and related information) and, at the same time, compete (as described in this article) against Apple in the same marketplace? Surely, there must be a conflict of interest.
Conflict of interest? No. Their primary interest is to make money for their shareholders. Thats the ONLY purpose of a corporation.
If Apple offers them 3 billion for all their flash memory or displays and they turn it down, THAT is a conflict of interest.
The Reason:
Samsung wants to sell display panels. They are building a tablet of their own to do this of course, but it sells, what, 60% of the panels it makes to Apple?
They’re happy either way, because they are selling panels. Making their own tablet is more of a hobby.
Samsung is a HUGE company. It is just fine selling displays to Apple (at nice volume discounts, too) and then trying to build its own products to compete. Samsung also knows that it is making lots of money from Apple, which is why Apple gets its displays first, and Samsung’s own products get them second.
Turns out it might not be thinner as claimed.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal-tech/tablets/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400221&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All
…
Don’t think my other post went through.
The Samsung might not be thinner as claimed. This side by side photo shows the iPad2 thinner.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal-tech/tablets/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400221&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All
“We will not be outdone.”
Well of course they will.
“The one thing Apple’s providing now is leadership in colors, It won’t take long for us to catch up with that, I don’t think.”
-Bill Gates on the 5 colors of the iMac 1999
He didn’t get it then and Samsung doesn’t get it now.
Samsung tablets can easily be thinner than the iPad 2. Just take out the battery.
NICE!! lol
Watching these clowns try to copy the characteristics of the iPad they think are important is like watching keystone cops.
When the original iPad was announced, you could hear the staccato popping of industry CEO pulling their heads out of their asses – once sales figures started crushing pundits’ predictions. After 6 months, the “value propositions” started to roll in:
Android is freedom! -Running on a form factor even Google can’t endorse.
We have Flash! -No, you don’t. If you do, it’s makes videos into slideshows.
Our 7″ form factor makes a better mobile device! -No, it doesn’t.
We have an app store! -Where developers can go and watch their IP get ripped off by sideloading freetards.
The iPad 2 is announced and we have another chorus of newly-liberated heads – even though it has been a year.
Our device is thinner!
Let the games begin – again.
http://themacadvocate.com/2011/03/02/ipad2-revealed-derivative-offerings-kick-dirt-sigh-deeply/
“the staccato popping of industry CEOs pulling their heads out of their asses” haHa!
When they come back from the drawing board they’ll have a drawing. That’ll be thinner.
Samsung spoke-person at CTIA:
“as for the technical evolution of our new thinner tablet, it happened like this: when our chief engineer saw the iPad 2 he screamed, pulled his hair, threw the prototype ‘fat’ Galaxy Tab on the floor and stomped on it with his foot…. the result is our wonderful new.. thinner tablet.”
Samsung VP update: “our spoke person commented in jest – ha ha ha – just like the previous (ex) employee earlier mis-spoke that Galaxy tab 1 sales were ‘quite small’ instead of ‘quite smooth’. Actually the reduction in thickness was simply achieved by removing half the battery… “
Samsung won’t be outdone, they’ll be UNDONE by iPad 2’s thinness.
What a joke.
No, Samsung is going to be just fine, and the more iPads Apple sells, the more fine they will be.
As long as they make the panels.
It is not vapor. We bought 1,000 cases that are thinner than the iPad’s. We are hoping to sell out within six months.
First, though, we have to figure out how to get all the components from the old one into the stupid thing.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVbV5bZCFAc&w=480&h=390%5D
Thank you, C1, but we will need to see Apple’s debigulator before will will implement ours. But ours will be thinner.
I’m certain that Samsung will deliver a tablet that is at least half as thin as the iPad 2.
Of course, “half as thin” also means “twice as thick”…
thinner in shape and totally lacking in every other respect.
Such a deal.