The first major competitor to Apple's iPad is hitting stores this week; the Samsung Galaxy Tab debuted on T-Mobile Wednesday and comes to Verizon today.
Sprint will start selling it November 14. US Cellular and AT&T will also offer the Samsung tablet; while no dates have been announced, Engadget this morning said the AT&T version will be available November 21 for $649.
The T-Mobile Galaxy Tab will cost $399.99 with a two year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate. For data, users can sign up for T-Mobile's monthly 5GB or 200MB webConnect mobile broadband plans or its pre-paid mobile broadband offering.
Verizon, meanwhile, will sell the Galaxy Tab without a contract for $600 and a $20 per month 1GB data plan. Sprint will offer it for $399.99 and two data plan options: the 2GB model for $29.99 a month with unlimited messaging and $59.99 a month on the 5GB model with unlimited messaging.
The Android-based Galaxy Tab includes a 7-inch screen, a 1-GHz Hummingbird processor, and two cameras: a 3-megapixel one with a camcorder and flash; and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. It also offers mobile hotspot capability as an optional add-on for connection on up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices for $29.99 per month.
An October Gartner study predicted that global tablet sales—mostly driven by the Apple iPad—will reach 19.5 million units this year, and cannibalize devices like the e-reader, gaming devices and high-end smartphones. Tablet sales will reach 54.8 million units by the end of 2011 and surpass 208 million by 2014, Gartner said.
In August, iSuppli also predicted that the iPad will dominate the tablet space at least through 2012. The iPad will make up 74.1 percent of global tablet shipments in 2010, iSuppli said, maintain a 70.4 percent market share in 2011, and hold 61.7 percent of the market in 2012.
A Forrester study from the same month, however, showed that 14 percent of U.S. online consumers – or 27 million people – intended to purchase a tablet in the next year, which Forrester said was "encouraging for Apple's would-be tablet competitors [since] there's interest in the category that goes beyond the iPad."
For more details, see PCMag's full review of the Sprint Galaxy Tab and the slideshow below. Also, check out a comparison of the specs and features on the Galaxy Tab and the iPad, and a look at how the Galaxy Tab and iPad stack up against RIM's upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook.
PCMag also put together a tablet showdown, which incorporates the business-oriented HP Slate, and looked at the Android competitors in the tablet space.