Remember when Samsung announced that their then-upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1 Honeycomb tablet would be a smidge thinner than the iPad 2? And remember when someone actually looked at the Galaxy Tab 10.1 prototypeand found out it was actually thicker than the iPad 2?
Confusing, right? But it’s about to get even more confusing: while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is just a hair thinner than the iPad 2 right now, Samsung will likely be forced to make it thicker than the iPad 2 in order to get around supply shortages. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 will soon be both thicker and thinner than the iPad 2 at the same time!
The problem? For the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung’s been using a thin GFI display so far, but due to supply shortages, they’ll soon have to adopt a 40 percent thicker panel that has 40% lower light transmittance too.
Starting soon, Samsung might be selling two Galaxy Tab 10.1’s: the Galaxy Tab Thin, and the Galaxy Tab Fat. Let’s hope they at least knock the price down on the fat version.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
44 responses to “Samsung Will Be Forced By Supply Shortages To Make Galaxy Tab 10.1 Thicker Than iPad 2”
iPads’ are more polished, have had more time in the real world and iOS has more tablet-centric apps than Honeycomb so iPad > Any Honeycomb tablet
I guess Samsung doesn’t subscribe to the philosophy of “under promise, over deliver.”
Sonnuva…
I’m still waiting for the 8.9 because I like the size better. I’m also more interested in the UI and better Gmail. Too bad it’ll be a while before there some good third-party apps
regardless of who is thinner, there seems to be a lack of decent tablet apps on the Android Market, so why would you buy a Android tablet if there is nothing decent to use on it.
“Likely” meaning greater than 50% chance they’ll use a 40% thicker display? Uh, no.
If demand is that great for the product, more supply comes on to meet demand. The company is far better off to make you wait for the hot product than change designs midstream.
If demand is not great for the product, waiting for displays isn’t as important.
Supply chain issues come and go with lots of parts on all electronics. It’s highly unlikely Samsung will have source different parts altogether. They’re one of the largest tech manufactures in the world, supplies line up to serve them (as well as Apple).
Its the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 that is effected by the screen issue, not the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Fixed it for you: “Too bad it’ll be NEVER before there some good third-party apps” on lamedroid tablets.
oh shut it troll. Your kind is not welcome anywhere
Droid has larger smartphone market share than iOS. So, given half a chance, why can’t the tablets do the same?
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Take a story about a totally differnt product line and use it to try and smear the name of the 10.1.
Get you’re facts straight guys and stop making shit up.
1. No competition. Until the iPhone exclusivity expired recently, when people ask for an iPhone at most carriers they are offered only android. It’s not that they want it. They had no choice. Note that Verizon says 2 days of iPhone sales beat the most popular android phone sale.
2. Carrier subsidy / advertising hides real cost of phones, especially the poor value of Android adware phones. Most tablets are not subsidized by carriers, thus consumers and reviewers are saying: why is the POS android tablet more expensive than iPad? Fact: iPod was unsubsidized. It beat out Microsoft and devices from every single consumer electronics maker.
3. Most Android phone makers are giving their product away for free or at a loss. Fact: 75% mobile phone profit are earned by Apple and RIM. Giving products away for market share (Android makers) won’t sustain forever.
This could be a gimmick to get consumers to rush and buy it thinking that the thinner galaxy tab will soon run out.
suckerrrs… Not like the Tab is ANY good…
Thanks for not posting any proof of this story…
Nice position thanks for a sharing this position. Thanks
Although I do concord with your aeronaut, I bang my own reservations.thanks
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stop with your bullcr@p facts ….do we really care which company makes the most money?? are u making money out of apple?? if not then shut ur trap about profits! what we really care about are the best products!! all the people i know want a droid and would take take an ipad shine it up real nice and stick it straight up your candy@ss!!!!
Awwww fandroid upset at the truth. In case you haven’t noticed, this is an Apple site.
I believe that if you already own an iPhone, your are better off getting the 10.1 instead of getting a bigger version of something you already have. This makes it possible to make up for what iOS lacks, which is uncompromised web surfing (flash!) What does everyone think?
Its the Galaxy 8.9 that is getting “fatter”, not the 10.1.
Here is the source:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/0…
Since when did “thicker” screen = “thicker” device.
You “tech journalists” dont know a thing about electronics do you?
The article that I quote, talks about the INNER layers of the screen NOT the outer layers of the screen.
What this “40% thicker” would be the INNER layer of the screen.
The exterior dimensions of the screen wont change at all. Its only the brightness and viewing angles that might be diminished.
This layer is equivalent to removing the INNER air pocket in the Super AMOLED display vs the regular AMOLED displays on Samsung’s screens. The exterior dimensions of the AMOLED screens on both are the same.
So much for being the “news editor” when he cant even get the correct information, let alone quote a source. Do you just randomly bring up stories from your behind. You cant even quote your source! You learn that in freshman Journalism class!
damn right! who cares about the facts when you can just make things up. Lets be fair if you really did care just about the technology and not about the brand then you my friend would be buying an iPad. The difference is Apple fans buy Apple products because they’re better but android fans only buy android products because they hate Apple. I don’t buy android because they make poor quality products not because i hate them.