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Topic: Bring Your Own Device

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0: Can it court BYOD love?

Summary: The goal for Samsung is obvious: Take its consumer smartphones and tablets and provide just enough enterprise goodies to be workplace friendly. It's unclear whether a $399 price tag for the Galaxy Note 8.0 will cut it.

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

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Samsung's Galaxy Note 8.0 comes with a $399 price tag and a big bet that features for employees' productivity will make it a bring your own device favorite.

The reviews on the Galaxy Note 8.0 are a bit mixed. CNET knocked the price and added:

The $399 price is a lot for a small tablet, no matter its features. It's not as thin or as light as the iPad Mini, and some people won't appreciate the highly saturated look of the OS. Also, its face buttons sometimes get in the way and there are occasional performance hangs...The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is a stunning tablet with a truly useful stylus, but it's not worth $400 unless you're an artist or prefer pen input.

Fair enough, but to hear Samsung tell it, the Galaxy Note 8.0, basically a mid-sized tablet, has work features that matter beyond the company's SAFE and Knox technologies.

Samsung touts the following work features:

  • "True PC-like multitasking" so users can use two apps in multiple windows. The Multi Window feature supports 20 apps.
  • Air View, a preview of content when you hold the S Pen above the screen.
  • Polaris Office to edit documents.
  • Awesome Note, a note taking application.
  • Group Play to collaborate with co-workers.

The goal for Samsung is obvious: Take its consumer smartphones and tablets and provide just enough enterprise goodies to be workplace friendly. Samsung pitches its devices to two audiences: Consumer and enterprise.

galaxynote8

 

What's unclear is whether this messaging will work. In some respects, Samsung almost looks like it's trying too hard to court the enterprise. It's not like Apple is so blatant about garnering bring your own device love.

If enterprises were doing the tablet buying perhaps a $399 price tag wouldn't be so bad. However, Samsung needs workers to evangelize its products. To employees, who may not fully appreciate work friendly features, price matters. In other words, the Galaxy Note 8.0 may be coming in too high. 

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Topics: Bring Your Own Device, Android, Samsung, Tablets

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11 comments
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  • BYOD conflicts with Enterprise buying...

    If BYOD means that I can bring my device into the enterprise for whom I work (over 40,000 employees), I don't expect the enterprise to pay for it. And whether I expect it or not, they won't. :)

    The price tag is way out of line, imo.
    Peter Sabin
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Windows 8 mini tablets would be awesome

    If MS and its partners came out with Windows 8 based mini-tablets, I think they could take over the market easily, and they could possibly saturate the businesses with Windows 8 tablets, by encouraging businesses to give these devices to their employees, as portable document / information consumption devices, which supplement their current PCs. Integrate / add Skype on to these devices, and they could become great, large phablets.
    P. Douglas
    Reply 3 Votes

    • If if if

      If Win 8 was on an 8" tablet with pen input . . . If all iPads had optional pen input . . . (A real pressure sensitive stylus not those nubbin things that work horribly.)

      For some reason Samsung is the only company to take the reins on this.

      I believe pen computing is the answer to productivity on tablets. The stylus got a bad rap back when pocket computers were extremely primitive, but the pen was not their problem - the pen was probably the only thing that made them usable at all. Now that they have multi-touch and color and apps and zippy processors and cameras etc etc, it's a different matter. Touch plus pen is a very good replacement for kb plus mouse.
      ArtInvent
      Reply 1 Vote

    • Yes, if Samsung made the Note 8 as a Win8 tablet ...

      ... with all the same stylus love, I would certainly buy it.

      As it is, even though I have an Acer W511 for my portable Win use, a Note 8 would be great for on the go notes and sketching ideas.
      Patanjali
      Reply Vote

    • MS dropped the ball when they left off universal LTE

      That move basically leaves business road warriers out in the cold.

      And when they didn't go straight to Atom and drop RT when it was obvious that Atom was going to match ARM devices for battery life.

      The only real place for RT to go is into phones.

      Even though I like my Note II and will probably get a Note 8, my Acer W511 with its always on, instant internet and seamless home network integration has shown just how much connectivity inconvenience all other devices subject us to.
      Patanjali
      Reply Vote

  • Why Samsung?

    Are the only tablets with useful features like multiple ports and card slots are only reserved for your higher priced tablets? First the 7.7 and now the 8.0.And why not a Note 8.9? It was and remains the perfect size for an always carry device. The best compromise for overall screen real estate and portability. Can we forget about Apple, and just do your own thing for a change, and be realistic about your target audience?
    crogs
    Reply Vote

  • Bias?

    I normally don't post on the Bias of an author because it is a matter of opinion. However, for $70 more I get on-screen multitasking which I don't have to double press a button every-time, 50 GBs of Dropbox storage for 2 years, and an included stylus? How much would a stylus for an iPad cost alone, plus the purchase of an app that supports it, in addition to the dropbox storage? More than $70 bucks you bet. To downplay a any users need for multitasking is also just misplaced. How many people do one thing on their devices. Do you just surf the web without the need to email something to someone, listen to music, or take a note? The iPad mini is a great device,however it is a consumers device at best. It is not "the device to beat" it's not even in the same category. Are you going to compare the Note to using a Kindle Fire in the workplace next?
    Beltannon
    Reply Vote

    • Note 8 > iPad Mini

      Comparing a Note 8 to an iPad Mini is just plain stupid.
      warboat
      Reply Vote

  • Too Pricey

    I was really looking forward to this tablet, WITH all the goodies. I was also looking for a much better price. Technology is supposed to provide more bang for the buck- Samsung delivered on the bang, but blew the buck. I'll wait.
    dickhob
    Reply Vote

    • Then don't buy it!

      It is not for you if you think price is the only criterion regardless of the extras it offers.

      It was never meant to be competition to the iPad mini for those who only wanted what that device offers. However, for those who want and would use the features that only the Note provides, the price difference would be made up by its utility in a very short time.
      Patanjali
      Reply Vote

  • Larry, you do potential Note buyers a disservice ...

    ... when you think that we are all tyre-kickers.

    Some of us actually are not adverse to paying for stuff that is useful beyond whim buying.
    Patanjali
    Reply Vote
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