NEW YORK -- You may need a scorecard to keep up with Samsung's latest tablets.
Last week in London, the tech giant announced two new Windows 8 slates: the ATIV Q and the ATIV Tab 3. Only four months earlier at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung introduced another model, the Galaxy Note 8 tablet. And today , Samsung said it was bringing out three new Galaxy Tab 3 tablets: in 7, 8 and 10.1-inch screen sizes. The 7-inch device will run on the Android 4.1 operating system, while the latter devices run on Android 4.2, or Jelly Bean.
The latest machines start arriving in the U.S. on July 7, with Samsung starting to accept pre-orders Tuesday. Tab 3 models come in white or a hue Samsung describes as gold brown. Prices are $199, $299 and $399, respectively.
While Samsung appears have a model in its portfolio that would theoretically appeal to any given tablet buyer, it also risks confusing consumers. Which is it now, a Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Note 8, ATIV? Or is it perhaps the Galaxy Note II "phablet" that depending on your viewpoint is either a small tablet or oversized smartphone?
Samsung is pushing this latest Tab 3 trio as a less expensive alternative to the Note 8, with a user interface that ought to be familiar and serve as a complement to folks who have bought the company's current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S 4.
Samsung cites research from Forrester stating that 49% of U.S. consumers who own both a mobile phone and tablet prefer the tablet as their primary device to go online. And data from the same survey further indicates that across 25 types of tablet applications there is no single dominant use of tablets by users.
The survey goes on to say that a typical user is more well-defined by their lack of uniformity as evidenced by the fact that they engage in a widely varied mix of five to six different application types in a given month with only games topping the 50% threshold for all tablet users.
Samsung is pushing Tab 3's use in the living room. They feature IR Blasters that transform the tablets into universal remote controls. Folks can get TV recommendations and on-demand content via Samsung's WatchOn service.
The tablets are Wi-Fi only, but buyers do get one year of Boingo hotspot service gratis, along with three months of free Hulu Plus service and two years of free DropBox Service with up to 50 GB storage space.
Each Tab 3 has a dual-core processor and expandable memory (through microSD), with the 7-inch tab starting you off with 8GB of storage and the two larger models with 16 GB.
Tab 3's are less robust than their premium Android sibling, the $399 Galaxy Note 8, which would appeal more to people who tend to use their tablets for creative pursuits. For instance, Note 8 users can exploit Samsung's so-called S Pen for drawing, jotting notes and taking advantage of other tricks.
Indeed, the presence of the digital pen is one way to differentiate a Note 8 from a Tab 3 -- without consulting a scorecard.
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