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Galaxy Tab 8.9, PMPs, Mango On Way From Samsung

NEW YORK –

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablet and
two Android-based Galaxy portable media players
(PMPs) will arrive in stores in October, having missed
previously announced ship dates.

In a separate mobile-device announcement, Samsung
unveiled its first smartphone with Microsoft’s updated
OS, called Windows Phone 7.5, or Mango. The company
didn’t say when or if a version of the Omnia W would
come to the U.S.

In tablets, the Wi-Fi-only Galaxy Tab 8.9 joined the currently
available 7- and 10.1-inch Galaxy Tabs in stores
on Oct. 2. The 16GB version retails at the previously
announced price of $469, and the 32 GB version retails
for $569, though its price had previously been announced
at $599.

The Tab 8.9 had been unveiled in March and at the
time was targeted to ship in early summer.

The Galaxy Player 5.0 and 4.0 PMPs will be available
Oct. 16, with the Player 5.0 featuring 5-inch touchscreen
at $269 and the 4.0 Player featuring 4-inch
screen at $229. The portable media players were announced
in March by Samsung, which at
the time said it expected May availability
at pricing that wasn’t announced.

By expanding the Galaxy franchise
from tablets and smartphones to PMPs,
Galaxy will tap new user segments,
Samsung said in March. For example,
kids who don’t need a smartphone with
an expensive data plan will choose a
Player to complement a basic cellphone,
the company said. The players are also
targeted to consumers who will mainly
consume media, browse the web, play
games, and participate in video or VoIP
chats, while the larger screens of the
Galaxy tablets will appeal to users who
want to consume media but whose priorities
are email and other productivity
applications, the company said at the
time.

The Galaxy Player 5.0 and 4.0 feature
Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread OS, though
they were originally announced with Android
2.2 (Froyo). Other features common
to both are Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n,
8GB of embedded memory, 32GB
MicroSD slot, Adobe Flash 10.1, and
through a future software update, the Samsung Media
Hub content service. With Media Hub, users can
download more than 5,000 movie and TV titles for purchase
or rent.

Both players also access the Android Market and
feature Google Mobile services, 720p playback and
recording, Samsung’s Allshare (DLNA technology) to
stream content to and from a DLNA PC and to DLNA
TVs, and dual cameras.

As for the Tab 8.9, Samsung
promotes it and the Tab 10.1 as
the thinnest mobile tablets currently
available in the U.S. market
at 8.6mm in depth. Both models
share many of the same features,
including Android 3.1 Honeycomb
OS, Samsung’s TouchWiz user
interface, dual-core 1GHz processor,
and WXGA TFT display.

Like the 10.1, the 8.9 accesses
the Samsung Media Hub, the Samsung
Music Hub to download songs
from a library of more than 13 million
songs, and the Samsung Readers
Hub to download more than
2.2 million books and thousands of
newspapers and magazines.

The tablet also features Google
Mobile Services, Samsung
AllShare (DLNA capability), rearfacing
3-megapixel camera, frontfacing
2-megapixel camera with
flash and autofocus, 1080p video
playback, and 720p video capture.

In smartphones, Samsung in Korea
unveiled its first model based
on the Windows Phone 7.5 OS. It features 3.7-inch
Super AMOLED display, 1.4GHz processor, and
14.4Mbps HSPA data technology for use on foreign
900/2100MHz networks.

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