Well here’s an unexpected twist. According to LaptopMag, Samsung will be shipping the much-expected Android-based Galaxy tab to four US wireless carriers. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile will all have Galaxy tablet love though none of the carriers have released any information yet about pricing or contracts.
One glaring omission, however, is that there will be no 4G connectivity on the Sprint version, as opposed to the Galaxy S counterpart that Sprint carries as the Epic 4G.
The tablet, which features software such as Media Hub for downloading and renting TV shows and movies, should land in the hands of US carriers in early November or even as soon as late October. It will ship with Android 2.2 and feature a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor with 7-inch capacitive touch screen.
The question remains, of course, about the price. While the first generation in the US will be carrier-based, and require monthly data fees, we’ve not yet seen pricing on a WiFi-only version that is rumored to be following soon. Beyond that, there is also the question of purchase price from carriers, and any subsidy that the carriers might do.
We’ve put our feelers out to both Verizon and Sprint, and hopefully will have a sneak peak at the carrier-based Galaxy tablets soon. While I personally would much prefer a Chrome OS-based device, there is definitely a market for the Android tablets, but they have to have some pretty serious pricing competition to hold a candle to the iPad.
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