Remember KT, they recently announced pre-selling 130,000 iPhone 4s in 13 hours? Now they plan to sell a tablet, and it is not the iPad. The “Identity Tab” has a 7-inch screen and is powered by Android. The Apple partner says it is “definitely thinking of launching the iPad in Korea,” however. Apple was mum on this rather schizoid marketing strategy.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the “Identity Tab” is priced at $23 for a two-year KT contract or $411 without any ties. The Android-based tablet “is rather cheap” compared to the expected $600-$700 price tag for either the iPad or Samsung’s Galaxy Tab in Korea, an analyst told the newspaper.
The KT tablet includes a one-gigahertz CPU, 8GB of memory and a 3-megapixel camera. Apps can be downloaded from KT’s own Olleh Market or Google’s Android Market.
Despite building a rival tablet, KT’s vice president told the Journal the mobile carrier still wants the iPad, but is unsure of the definite time frame for any launch.
Along with KT rival SK Telecom offering Samsung’s Galaxy Tab in September, LG is also likely to get into the tablet market later this year. In related news, Gartner Tuesday predicts the slew of lower-priced Pad rivals will take a bite from the min-notebook market. As for the iPad, it “hasn’t had much of an impact on mini-notebook units so far, if only because it is generally priced higher than most mini-notebooks,” research director George Shiffler said.
[WSJ]
