While the Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNLF) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) continue to fight in court over mobile technology, both companies are preparing to release new products. We’ve already noted the coming release of Apple’s iPhone 5, but Samsung is stealing a little of the Cupertino company’s thunder today with its Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet.
How the new device measures up against the iPad is the subject of a long review in today’s New York Times. Here’s the basic conclusion:
But over all, the Note feels like a laundry-list tablet. It has a higher feature count than any other tablet, but those features are stuffed into a machine with less coherence than any other tablet.
The Galaxy Note comes with custom-built, pre-loaded applications, including a version of Office from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Photoshop Touch from Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), and the Nook app from Barnes and Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS). The Android-based operating system software from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will be upgradeable to the newest version by the end of this year, and the device goes on sale tomorrow at both Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).
Now if Samsung and Apple could just reach an agreement on smartphone patents. The judge in the case told both sides today to try one more time to reach a settlement:
If you all had wanted is to raise awareness that you have IP [intellectual property] on these devices, messages delivered. In many respects, mission accomplished. It’s time for peace. If you could have your CEOs have one last conversation, I’d appreciate it.
We’ll know about that soon enough. In the meantime, there are new products to check out.
Paul Ausick
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