Samsung and wireless carrier Verizon announced on Oct. 20 that the Samsung Galaxy tablet computer will go on sale in the United States on November 11.
Verizon Wireless is offering a monthly Internet access plan for the Samsung Galaxy Tab beginning at $20 a month for one-gigabyte of data.
The tablet computer, which is powered by Google's Android software, is Samsung's answer to the Apple iPad. It features a seven-inch touchscreen -- smaller than the iPad's nearly 10-inch display -- and supports Adobe's Flash video software, which is barred by Apple from running on the iPad.
At $600, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is more expensive than the cheapest iPad, which costs between $499 and $829 depending on the amount of memory or whether the device has both wireless and 3G connectivity.
Apple chief executive Steve Jobs slammed seven-inch tablets on Oct. 18 saying the screen was too small and the device would be "dead on arrival."
"The seven-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad," Jobs said. He suggested makers of seven-inch screens "include sandpaper so users can sand down their fingers" to be able to tap tiny onscreen keys.
Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of Research In Motion, the maker of the Blackberry which also plans to market a seven-inch tablet computer, the Playbook, fired back at Jobs's comments on Oct. 19.
"We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple," Balsillie said in a blog post.
"For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that seven-inch tablets will actually be a big portion of the market," he said.
AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are also expected to sell the Samsung Galaxy Tab, one of a number of tablet computers slated for release by global electronics companies in a bid to challenge the iPad.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
