Thinner, cheaper iPad forces Samsung back to the drawing board for new Galaxy
ADVANCES in Apple's iPad 2 have already forced Samsung to replace "inadequate" parts in its main rival, the Galaxy S tablet.
SAMSUNG has admitted it faces a tough challenge to compete with Apple's new slimmer and cheaper iPad, saying "inadequate" parts had to be improved.
The iPad 2 unveiled this week was described by Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs as "dramatically thinner" than the previous model.
The tablet is one-third the thickness of its predecessor at 8.8mm and also thinner than Samsung's latest 10.9mm Galaxy gadget announced last month.
"We will have to improve the parts that are inadequate," Lee Don-Joo, executive vice president of the Korean firm's mobile division, told Yonhap news agency.
"Apple made it very thin."
Apple is also winning on price so far.
Samsung's original seven-inch screen Galaxy Tab was priced at nearly $US900 if bought without a two-year contract from mobile operators, while the cheapest iPad 2 costs $US499.
Samsung has not announced pricing for its new 10.1-inch tablet.
"The 10-inch (tablet) was to be priced higher than the seven-inch but we will have to think that over," Mr Lee told Yonhap.
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Samsung has sold two million Galaxy Tabs since October 2010 while Apple sold 15 million iPads in April-December.
Rival manufacturers have been scrambling to bring their own tablet computers to market since Apple introduced the iPad last year.
Overall sales of tablets, which can be used to surf the web, read e-books, watch videos and more, are forecast to hit 55 million this year.