Samsung: ‘We will not be outdone’ by iPad 2 thinness

15 years ago

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.”