10-Inch Samsung Galaxy Tab coming “first half of 2011”

Samsung employees, they just keep feeding us those little extra pieces of information don’t they?

Before the Samsung Galaxy Tab has even hit shelves, there are reports that the electronics giant is already hard at work perfecting its a 10-inch model of its highly awaited tablet device, launching in the first half of 2011, according to Gary Twohig, Samsung Mobile’s Country Manager.

Interviewed by Silicon Republic, Twohig commented on the recent announcement that O2, Vodafone, 3 and Carphone Warehouse would be stocking the Galaxy Tab in the UK, confirming that pre-orders were already in the thousands (I’m sure this comes as no surprise).

At the very bottom of the article, there’s a small mention of the upcoming 10-inch tablet:

Twohig also revealed that Samsung is preparing to launch a 10-inch version of the Galaxy Tab by the first half of 2011 which will also come with Android and a V8 Javascript engine.

As Engadget points out, it’s entirely possible that the 10-inch model was planned right from the outset but was held back due to shortcomings in the current Android operating system with it’s ability to support higher resolutions. It is thought that the Gingerbread or Honeycomb firmwares will be more tablet-orientated, providing a plausible explanation as to why the larger model was held back until the software was released.

It’s certainly going to be a a fun 9 months, there are literally hundreds of tablets coming to market. Samsung will hope that by coming to market early, demand for the Galaxy Tab and its larger sibling will stay high.