Samsung launches Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Hong Kong

Soon after Samsung's latest 10.1-inch tablet computer's launch in its home country of Korea, it will be out in the stores of Hong Kong from 12 August.

The tablet runs Google’s Android Honeycomb operating system, a step up from the Android 2.2 Froyo in the company's first tablet, the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 features a 10.1-inch HD touchscreen, a dual-core chip, 1 gigabyte of memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and front and rear cameras.

Alex Chung, chief operating officer of Samsung Electronics Hong Kong, said the key message of the campaign for Galaxy Tab 10.1 is "it's time to tab". He says it's a "call for action" on the part of consumers to give the new tablet a try now. The Tab 10.1 is positioned as a notebook replacement for both outdoors and indoors.

A full gamut of promotional vehicles will be used to reach consumers, with a combination of outdoor, online, and commercial TV. Particularly, forum seeding, together with online and portal banner ads will be used. The Galaxy's core customers are teenagers and youths aged 15 to 25 years old.

Part of the campaign also includes a large-scale 3-dimensional projection onto the Heung Lung Center building at Causeway Bay in Hong Kong.

Yesterday, Apple blocked Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet from being sold in Australia until patent concerns were resolved, but Chung assured that the lawsuit would not affect Hong Kong's launch.

The 10-inch tablet will also be launched in mainland China during mid-September.

Samsung has forecast Galaxy Tab 10.1 will outsell last year's sales of the 7-inch tablet in Hong Kong by more than three times.

The size of Samsung's new tablet is very close to Apple's iPad. Chung said the two products would be able to grow the overall market for tablet computers."We capture different segments of the market and we want to offer an alternative for the market. We want to increase the market size for tablet computers together," he said.

Chung estimates a 12 to 13 per cent current market share for Samsung in the tablet market, but emphasised Samsung's focus this year is not on the figures, but on strengthening the infrastructure of the tablet.

"I can keep harping on a target of 50 or 60 per cent but that will be very unrealistic as the tablet computer market is not very stable now and the customer base keeps increasing."

He said talking about market share is too early at this stage as Samsung needs to consider how the market is shaping up and what kind of consumer behaviour they are seeing for tablets.

In Hong Kong, the mobile phone penetration rate is close to 200 per cent currently, but the rate for tablet computers is only in the single-digit range, according to Chung.

But Chung sees the market potential, compared to last year, as almost 300 per cent more.