With the Mobile World Congress just around the corner, the speculation about new products is really gearing up. Topping the line of exciting rumors is Samsung’s new 8-inch Note tablet. Samsung’s self-generated fan website, SamMobile, was the first to report on these rumors and Korean website, iNews24 substantiated them further. The new tablet is expected to run on Android’s Jelly Bean 4.2 OS and be powered by a 1.6 GHz quad-core Exynos processor.
Samsung has always pushed towards frequent new tablets to beat competition. Ever since the Galaxy Tab, which was the first Android-based tablet, Samsung’s devices have seen much success. However, they have been a step behind Apple’s iPad, which is currently the top tablet in the market. Samsung Mobile President, J.K.Shin, reportedly professed that Samsung hopes to use the new Note to compete with Apple’s iPad Mini.
Other than the 8-inch 1280×8000 Super LCD screen, which was confirmed by iNews, the new tab is expected to come with a stylus just like its predecessors. It will also have a 5mp rear camera, 1.3mp front camera, 4600 mAh battery, 2GB internal RAM and options of 16GB or 32GB for internal memory. You can always increase storage with a micro SD card. The tab will also come in different WiFi and cellular versions for each of the memory levels, which will be priced differently.
Venture capitalist and tech analyst Mary Meeker had predicted that tablets and other handhelds would surpass the PC in terms of popularity by mid-2013. Already the market is aggressively moving in that direction, and mobile companies are seeing their tablets grow much faster than their smartphones. Apple and Samsung have been at the forefront in harnessing and further promoting this trend, with Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD and Google’s Nexus 7 right on their heels. Microsoft has just entered the race with the Surface Tablet, packing the new OS Windows 8.
Clearly, 2013 is going to be a heated year for tablets, which just means that there will be more eyes on this category at the MWC in Barcelona this year. Apple’s January earnings report, which is expected soon, and the response to this new gadget will give a better idea of where Samsung will be placed in the tablet market. Today, the South Korean tech giant is already at No. 1 in the global smartphone market, so tablets are only the logical next step.
