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Screenshot by Roger Cheng/CNET
It’s tablet time.
Samsung will show off its newest device during an event Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York. The invitation didn’t give many details but included the tagline “Tab Into Color” — which indicates we’ll see a new version of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab line of tablets.
CNET will kick off the action at 3:30 p.m. PT/6:30 p.m. ET with our live preshow, where Donald Bell, Eric Franklin, and Brian Tong will take your calls and Twitter questions. At 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET, we’ll toggle over to the live video stream from Madison Square Garden. David Carnoy, Sarah Tew, and I will bring you all the news, commentary, and photos from the event, via our live blog.
Tune into CNET’s live blog at 3:30 p.m. PT/6:30 p.m. ET Thursday.
After dominating the smartphone market, Samsung has turned its attention to tablets. The company has released a wide variety of different screen sizes, ranging from devices just above its popular phablets — phone and tablet hybrids — to its 12.2-inch Galaxy TabPro. It has stuck to two main categories — its Galaxy Note tablets, which include a stylus and are pricer, and its Galaxy Tabs, which are lower priced and typically have slightly less functionality.
However, Samsung’s tablets still haven’t become as popular as its smartphones. Nearly two-thirds of tablets in the market — including from Samsung — run Google’s Android operating system. But Apple remains the most popular single vendor with its iOS-powered iPad, according to IDC. Samsung has been gaining, though. In the first quarter, Apple’s global market share totaled 33 percent, down from 40 percent in the year-ago period. Samsung’s share rose to 22 percent from 18 percent a year earlier, IDC said, as the Korean company continued “to work aggressively with carriers to drive tablet shipments through attractively priced smartphone bundles.”
The overall tablet market has been going through tough times of late. There are worries people are increasingly choosing cheaper models and are holding onto their tablets longer. In addition, phablets are getting so big that some people are finding they don’t really need a tablet as well. In the first quarter, worldwide tablet and 2-in-1 PC shipments dropped 36 percent sequentially and rose only 3.9 percent from the previous year, IDC said. The firm noted the slowdown hit the various tablet operating systems and screen sizes and “likely points to an even more challenging year ahead for the category.”
The Samsung Galaxy Note Pro is a hulking behemoth (pictures)
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