Samsung's Galaxy Tab Runs Froyo, Has Flash and Measures 7-Inches
It was possibly the worst-kept secret in tablet-land (more so than the iPad), but the final specs have now been revealed for the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It'll run Android 2.2 (Froyo) and comes in a 7-inch flavor—for now.
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung has turned weeks of leaks into a finished product sheet: the Galaxy Tab ships with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and Adobe Flash on a 7-inch screen, making it the first fully specced Android challenger to the iPad rather than a rumored one. Two days earlier, the device had already surfaced inside Verizon Wireless' internal systems before any announcement, so the retail path looks like a carrier play even though the specific Verizon deal remains unconfirmed.
The timing matters because the iPad's head start left Android without a credible tablet answer through most of 2010; a named ship date from Samsung's Galaxy line, carrying the newest Android release and Flash support, gives the platform its first concrete counter-move at a size deliberately different from Apple's 10-inch format.
First-order effects
- Samsung moves from leaked prototype to final specification overnight, putting pressure on every other Android OEM that showed tablet concepts earlier in 2010 but has nothing shipping with comparable specs.
- Verizon gains a plausible exclusive-or-launch tablet candidate, turning the carrier into the distribution battleground for Android tablets just as it was for Android phones.
Second-order effects
- Apple faces its first competitor attacking on dimensions the iPad did not choose — pocketable 7-inch size and Flash support — forcing the comparison onto software breadth rather than hardware alone.
- Other carriers will now need an Android tablet answer of their own, pushing Samsung toward multi-carrier variants and rivals like Motorola, HTC and LG toward accelerating their own slate roadmaps.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Android tablets fragment across screen sizes the way Android phones did, with each generation chasing the newest dessert-named OS release while the iPad controls one form factor and one update cycle.
- Carrier subsidy, proven in smartphones, becomes the default go-to-market for consumer tablets, entrenching operators as gatekeepers between OEMs and buyers.
The trend: Android is answering the iPad not with a clone but with a smaller, carrier-distributed tablet running the latest OS release, marking the start of the multi-size Android slate market.