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Report: Samsung to release slate tablet PC

By | March 16, 2010, 5:32am PDT

Summary: Tech giant Samsung is working on a slate tablet computer, according to a new report.

Tech giant Samsung is working on a slate tablet computer, according to a new report.

APC reports that the unnamed device is aiming to be a primary, not complementary, computing device and can dock to become a desktop computer, according to anonymous Samsung executives.

The slate tablet PC is due in the second half of 2010.

The device will have a full-power (read: Intel Atom or Moorestown, rather than ARM) processor and a wealth of connectivity options, according to the report, and will have “more potential” than Apple’s iPad.

It will be aimed at the consumer market, but can be used for PowerPoint presentations at the office or university.

Image: Samsung’s most recent go at the (professional) tablet market, the Q1 UMPC

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Topics

Slate, Device, PC, Tablet PC, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Ultramobile PCs (UMPCs), E-books & E-Readers, Tablets, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Emerging Technologies, Personal Technology, Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is editor of ZDNet and SmartPlanet.

Disclosure

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew J. Nusca is an editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. He lives in his native Philadelphia with his wife, cat and Boston Terrier.

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i do know of what i speak. been researching this long before Intel created
wessonjoe 25th Mar 2010
Cell/Atom.
ARM is king in power consumption and personal media devices for a reason.
if programmers will get off their haunches and break free of the windows hardware abstraction layer the future will be quite bright.
technologically, Atom cannot hope to beat ARM as long as they are tied to a behemoth OS and software ecosystem that punishes users with programs that require a runtime that is loaded on top of the OS instead of having direct access to the hardware underneath the GUI.
technologically, as long as the processor needs to access the system bus to connect to the video chip, it will always be slower than one that doesn't.
technologically, we can debate the relative merits of RISC and CISC processors all day long.
the bottom line is that RISC doesn't need the immense clock speed to be just as capable.
CISC has recognized that their only hope for continued gain is in stacking processor cores on die.
RISC can do this too.
and when ARM perfects this, the perceived superiority of Atom over ARM will disappear.

so, ARM has way more "potential" than Atom.

happy
.
View in thread
0 Votes
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Greeeeaaaaattt
kakarrato 16th Mar 2010
hahahahah , and by the looks of it, WINDOWS XP?....Really?....ahaha
0 Votes
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oy.......
Badgered Updated - 16th Mar 2010
Greeeeaaaaattt hahahahah , and by the looks of it, WINDOWS XP?....Really?....ahaha

Read the footnotes next time, it's an old image:

Image: Samsung?s most recent go at the (professional) tablet market, the Q1 UMPC
0 Votes
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Hey Badgered
kakarrato 16th Mar 2010
yeah, i looked and apparently you didnt, come on man....really?

The Q1 can boot into two different modes: typical Windows XP (OS can be replaced), and AVS mode running Windows XP Embedded

oooh, and here is the kicker

Microsoft Vista installs and runs successfully on the Q1 with some driver issues.

Really...?
0 Votes
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Really?
Badgered Updated - 16th Mar 2010
yeah, i looked and apparently you didnt, come on man....really?

The Q1 can boot into two different modes: typical Windows XP (OS can be replaced), and AVS mode running Windows XP Embedded

oooh, and here is the kicker

Microsoft Vista installs and runs successfully on the Q1 with some driver issues.

Really...?

Dude... that was a 2007-ish device...

Seriously, 3 years old.... Are you sure you understand that the photo is not of the new product?

edit: i.e. The old Q1 is not the new product being announced.
0 Votes
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You both failed at seeing the shocker
TxM2xTx 16th Mar 2010
Now that's funny ... crunchgear shows the shocker (google it, you will find the same url) ... http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/16/shock-samsung-is-prepping-a-slate-pc/
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Apparently, I still do...
Badgered 16th Mar 2010
You both failed at seeing the shocker

What's your point? That article says basically the same thing as this one. Just with a different picture, which might or might not be the slate they're working on.
0 Votes
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Samsung is being hammered here in Korea.
A Grain of Salt 16th Mar 2010
Since the iPhone was released a couple of months ago,
400000 units sold, and the iPad announced, Samsung and LG
have been under fire for their lack of innovation; right up to
Presidential level. They have relied on the fact that many
Koreans blindly buy Korean goods, but that is changing.
Samsung needs to make this a winner or risk losing a big
chunk of emerging markets; something they are not used to
in their home country.
0 Votes
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Not sure it matters.....
Badgered 16th Mar 2010
Samsung needs to make this a winner or risk losing a big chunk of emerging markets; something they are not used to in their home country.

Seems to me that anything that comes out from anyone other than Apple will be seen as a "me too" product. Even if it's better.
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True, but...
A Grain of Salt 16th Mar 2010
Tech history is full of "better" technologies and products that have
failed. Most you will find just didn't catch the public's imagination.
For whatever reason Apple is able to do that.

I believe many people are bored of the same old computing paradigm
that we have had for the past 25 years. Apple has managed to change
that paradigm just enough to recapture people's interest.

To give an example, LG is advertising their new smart phone (not sure
of the name). They show a notebook computer morph into a mobile
phone, show some confusing schematic diagrams and finish showing
the centre piece 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor. My god, all the
problems of a notebook squashed into a phone; the pain. And, does
the average consumer know what a Snapdragon is; or care? Hardware
wise, this phone blows the iPhone out of the water, but how easy is it
to use? It may be easier, but you wouldn't know from the advertising.

When Apple advertises they show someone using the the product and
how easy it is to use. No mention of specs at all. All about ease of
use, not to mention the cool factor.

Like Apple or hate them, you've got to admit they capture imagination.
You can't truly hate something until it has captured your imagination;
even for the wrong reasons. And believe me, in Korea Apple has
captured the imagination; for the right reasons.
0 Votes
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Can you check for us what happens if the battery dies ?
TxM2xTx 16th Mar 2010
Do we have to pay $105 to have a new (or refurbished) iSamsung delivered to us ?
0 Votes
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RE: Report: Samsung to release slate tablet PC
sthatcher 16th Mar 2010
whatever the market comes out with will probably be perceived as a me-too product, but I won't be looking at it that way. I already use a Samsung Q1U and I am looking forward to buying a new tablet PC that runs windows 7 that will be released because of the iPad. Personally, I would never buy an iPad because of the applications that I need to run simply do not exist in the Apple world. I have put my Q1 to good use from everything to running Kindle for PC, developing Microchip embedded software, and doing flight simulations for high power rockets.
0 Votes
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Please don't take offence, but...
A Grain of Salt 16th Mar 2010
the exact reason that many of these tablets don't take off is because they
are aimed at people like you. You probably represent 1-2% of the
population; a niche market at best. Albeit a highly intelligent and very
educated part of the market, but still a niche and way off Apple's radar
which is aimed fairly and squarely at the rest of us mere mortals.
0 Votes
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You need to look deeper, at how you use it.
johnmckay 17th Mar 2010
Currently you use a mouse to navigate icons on the display. Imaging poking your finger on it instead; imagine dragging those icons around with your finger instead of a mouse. And imagine that mouse is actually a rather awkward trackpad OR nipple.

I use an hp4200 from time to time; mostly just my jukebox now. It's a pain to use the pen for anything other than sketches, but that is useful. I'm really looking forward to progress whereby my multitasking device can work by fingers rather than a pen.

Bring it on! It's not for high end brainiacs... it's for you and me, your wife, husband, sister, whatever. It just needs you to think about how you use the PC and think a bit more abstractly. You can't type and move the mouse at the same time; maybe it's quicker to type and touch an icon rather than scrabble around for the mouse??? What did you do before yu had your first mouse? This technology has much the same potential and I'm hoping it's better thean the Chad Valley iPad.
0 Votes
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no offense at all
sthatcher 18th Mar 2010
I have considered myself in a niche for a long time. It will be why I more than likely will never buy anything that Apple ever releases. I use a PSP for music, games, and video. The tablet is for the heavier stuff...
0 Votes
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RE: Report: Samsung to release slate tablet PC
beartp 16th Mar 2010
The picture they show looks just like the Samsung tablet released years ago. The battery on that one was easy to remove
0 Votes
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RE: Report: Samsung to release slate tablet PC
cresshead 16th Mar 2010
if that's the photo of it then it's one pugg ugly device..
0 Votes
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RE: Report: Samsung to release slate tablet PC
weitengrong0005 16th Mar 2010
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0 Votes
+ -
since "full power" ARM processor packages exist now (>1ghz), the hype of
wessonjoe 16th Mar 2010
the Inhel clan keeps on getting less plausible every day.
the beauty of ARM is that the numeric and graphic processors are connected with much better performance capability than "full power" processors under similar power usage criteria.
AMD/ATI are trying to copy this capability but are not there yet.
so to somehow suggest that ARM has less "potential" than Atom is to buy into the marketing hype of some entity more than to declare truthful facts.
therefore this should be listed under the banner of blog instead of news.

but, thanks for the opinion.

happy
.
0 Votes
+ -
Or maybe we just know what we're talking about.
shadfurman 16th Mar 2010
' ARM has less "potential" than Atom'

Key word there POTENTIAL.

ARM and Atom are only competing via marketing.
Technologically they don't compete. Atom isn't
as low wattage and ARM isn't as powerful (by
it's self). I think ARMs best days are still
ahead of it's self, and I think the Atom will
only make it into extremely high end phones.
ARM will still reign king over devices for
decades to come.
0 Votes
+ -
i do know of what i speak. been researching this long before Intel created
wessonjoe 25th Mar 2010
Cell/Atom.
ARM is king in power consumption and personal media devices for a reason.
if programmers will get off their haunches and break free of the windows hardware abstraction layer the future will be quite bright.
technologically, Atom cannot hope to beat ARM as long as they are tied to a behemoth OS and software ecosystem that punishes users with programs that require a runtime that is loaded on top of the OS instead of having direct access to the hardware underneath the GUI.
technologically, as long as the processor needs to access the system bus to connect to the video chip, it will always be slower than one that doesn't.
technologically, we can debate the relative merits of RISC and CISC processors all day long.
the bottom line is that RISC doesn't need the immense clock speed to be just as capable.
CISC has recognized that their only hope for continued gain is in stacking processor cores on die.
RISC can do this too.
and when ARM perfects this, the perceived superiority of Atom over ARM will disappear.

so, ARM has way more "potential" than Atom.

happy
.
0 Votes
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Thinks I want in this kind of device.
shadfurman 16th Mar 2010
netbookish size
screen detaches from keyboard base.
And heres the kicker I'm surprised nobody has done,
eInk on the other side!

The functionalities are limitless!
Have your battery life displayed so you don't go to
boot it up only to find out theres 5% battery left and
it dies ten seconds later.

Check your email

Surf the web, I don't need graphics for 90% of what I
do.

Word processing. Sure the update might be slow, but it
would be worth it if you could write your paper on the
beach for 10 hours without it dying.

Data entry. Same story.

This would be awesome for phones too!

You could save batter life by never turning on your
screen to make phone calls.

Would be way better as an ereader.

Read texts and emails.

And when you want to, flip it over and play some
games.

All devices should get rid of 90% of their LEDs and
just use eInk.

HP! If your gonna use software buttons to control
things like volume at least make them cool eInk
buttons. The they could be remappable with custom
icons!

I'm am SO surprised eInk has not taken off more than
it has. It might be expensive for the high rez, high
color (er.. I mean gray) eReaders, but for black and
white low rez is pretty darn cheap.
0 Votes
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A screens on each side of a tablet???
i8thecat 16th Mar 2010
Have you even thought that through at all???

Where does the structural integrity come from??
?

Do you realize how thick it would have to be to
achieve cooling???

Which side you set down on a table becomes a
choice of which screen do you prefer to
scratch.

And e-ink is not that impressive...
0 Votes
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It looks very like the Samsung Q1 slate tablet PC released in 2006.
Robert Carnegie 2009 Updated - 17th Mar 2010
To be honest, it looks even more like the Samsung Q1 Ultra slate tablet PC released in 2007. The Q1 didn't have two half-keyboards on each side of the screen.

As far as I could tell, the Q1 Ultra would run slower than the Q1 which I'd bought, but the battery would last longer. The Q1 Ultra Premium (2008) apparently is faster but is not available in my territory (United Kingdom).

And now this.
0 Votes
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Oh. My mistake. The picture IS a Samsung Q1 (Q1 Ultra or Q1 Premium).
Robert Carnegie 2009 17th Mar 2010
It's confusing when you illustrate a story about something that doesn't exist yet with a picture of a different thing. At least it's confusing to me.

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