Ben's Talk3G Blog

Reviews are now widespread of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, now available to buy. This is the tablet that Samsung famously took back to the drawing board after Apple's iPad 2 announcement left the original concept for the 10.1 looking ridiculously bloated.

'Favourable' is how I'd describe what I've read. Trusted Reviews have gone as far as giving it a Recommended award, suggesting that, if you're after a tablet, this is the one to get...

So kudos to Samsung for making a nice piece of hardware. We know they can do it; the range of Galaxy smartphones has been a great success, and these are also using Google's Android OS.

But can you put Android on a tablet, even if it's the best tablet in the world, and make something that can be recommended over, say, an iPad?

I noted Gadgetspy ended their news post regarding the Tab 10.1 going on sale with the all-telling summary basically concluding if you don't want an Apple product, this is the tablet to buy. Do tech writers actually presume that there's a big enough audience out there that vehemently hate Apple and will buy competitors' products instead, even when they're inferior, that it matters in the real world? The Trusted Reviews writeup seems almost scared to reference the iPad, despite the blatant fact that it's the only tablet of note right now. Things have moved on in smartphone land, Android has found rampant success, but in tablet land there is only one champion and 'bigging up' second place attempts and also-rans strikes me as completely bizarre.

Being sympathetic towards something that isn't quite there wont make it better. To the contrary, it'll leave many of those encouraged to get it disillusioned.

No one, as far as I can tell, believes Android has cracked the tablet yet. TR, along with their recommendation, also note that Android is the biggest downfall of the device. I'm sorry, but the OS is the device; if buyers of the new Tab can't get on with Android and its dearth of tablet-specific apps then all they're left with is a very expensive plastic picture frame. While I'm on the subject of apps, don't think encouraging people to buy Android tablets will somehow turn the app drought into a monsoon; the iPad was extended no such courtesy. It's the fragmentation of Android that hinders app development - nobody knows which device to design for!

Samsung were right, in many ways, to take their new Tab back to the drawing board and learn from Apple's design refinements over the original iPad. But making hardware, especially when someone else has already done almost exactly the same thing as you, is relatively easy. Making great software that integrates tightly with that hardware to create a revolutionary user experience is incredibly difficult, and it's here where Samsung falls down. I'd respect them much more as a manufacturer if they were to turn around and say "No, sorry, we're not releasing tablets until the user experience is right".