After spending the last couple of days with the Galaxy Tab, we can confidently say it’s the best Android tablet on the market. Now, that’s not saying much given the state of the Android competition, but we can also assuredly say that the Tab is the first true competitor to Apple’s iPad. Its crisp display, compact form factor, touch-friendly software and dual cameras undoubtedly have what it takes to win over the average tablet seeker. However, we still have some reservations right now. Google hasn’t yet provided any direction on Android as a tablet platform, which means that the Tab is held back by lagging application support and software that doesn’t fully take advantage of the extra screen real estate. Remember, that when the iPad launched many developers were already working on tablet specific apps and Apple had an iPad app store in place. Put simply, without that ecosystem and support from Google, Samsung is left to its own devices — literally. Just today Samsung rolled out an emulator for the Tab that uses the Android SDK and the company says it’s working with Google and plans to use future iterations of Android, so we’ll have to see what happens — but for now it looks like the saga of the Samsung Galaxy Tab still has several chapters to go.
Stern hits the nail on the head here. The Galaxy Tab looks like a pretty decent device, yet it might get stranded in the middle between Google and Samsung. This is a potential issue anytime one company’s device is dependent on another’s software. Apple’s system may be “closed,” but at least the iPad’s operating system was designed to work on it, from the ground up.