Samsung is urging operators to bundle sales of its new Galaxy tablet with cell phones and their data plans in order to cut the cost to consumers.
Speaking on the sidelines of the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Lee Don Joo, head of global sales and marketing for Samsung’s mobile products, said it would be a burden if consumers had to pay for a separate plan for the Galaxy Tab on top of their existing phone plan.
Samsung is pushing the Tab as very much an extension of its Android-based Galaxy smartphone series, rather than as a scaled down computer. It has full phone functionality with HSDPA/HSUPA/GPRS/Edge connectivity, as well as a Wi-Fi chip.
The Korean company has a different strategy from Apple, which sells a Wi-Fi only version of the iPad direct to consumers. Samsung is only planning to sell the device to operators currently, who will offer it to consumers with the phone functionality at a subsidised price.
“Some could sell it for a $1 with a heavier rate plan, some for $299 with a lighter contract,” Mr Lee told me.
“Instead of say operators charging $40 [a month] for a plan [for the Tab] as well as $40 for the [regular] phone, we are talking to operators about combining them in a bundle for maybe $60.”
“Some European operators can provide one telephone number, two Sim cards, two devices, one data plan and one bill and this is better for the consumer.
“Hopefully we can mitigate worries with such a bundle offer – that is exactly what we are talking about now with all the operators.”
Mr Lee says operators around the world will announce availability of the Galaxy Tab, one by one, “very soon”.
He said Samsung also differed from Apple in sharing revenue with operators from services such as the Zinio digital magazine service. Both Samsung, Zinio and the operator would share proceeds compared to the iPhone, where 70 per cent goes to app developers and 30 per cent to Apple.
Mr Lee said the tablet market was forming around the 7-inch and 10-inch screen sizes and , at 7 inches, the Galaxy Tab was the leading device. He defined it as a more portable size for media on the go, while 10 inches (the iPad is 9.7 inches) was more of a living-room device to use while relaxing on the couch.
With its Readers Hub offering digital books, magazines and newspapers, the Galaxy Tab could threaten the similar-sized Amazon kindle. Mr Lee said the Kindle was a niche device, useful for people who liked to read for several hours, while reading habits among the young today were for much shorter periods.
Samsung is reserving its Galaxy brand strictly for Android-based devices, while Samsung Wave phones are focused on its own Bada platform and Samsung Omnia phones run Windows.
Samsung is happy with the Android platform, but Mr Lee said Bada was also doing well in Europe, particularly in France, where developers had come up with around 500 apps running on Bada for that market.
He was also optimistic about phones running the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system, due in late October or early November, which he said was a big improvement from the 6.5 version.
“As far as I know, acceptance this time is different from the operator and the consumer…. so there is a high chance they are coming back to the main stage,” he said.
“I think they are trying very hard, they should not be out of this industry, if they fail it’s serious and they know it, that’s the reason they are putting a lot of effort in here.”
