Samsung promises 4G Android tablet later this year

Current generation Galaxy tablets 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch continue to remain absent from retail chains.

Following the success of its Galaxy S and Galaxy S II smartphones, Samsung is now eying an Android tablet supporting fourth generation network technology.

Samsung's mobile division president JK Shin has hinted that the tablet will be released later this year.

"The race for 4G (fourth-generation) has already started," Shin said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

If it does, then Samsung will join the league of 4G Network supporting tablets LG G-Slate, Motorola XOOM, HTC Evo View 4G and RIM PlayBook 4G. By the end of this year, the US nationals would get to see most of these 4G network supporting tablets.

The current Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is capable of 3G data network connectivity and comes in 16GB as well as 32GB models.

While India still is in the initial phase of 3G roll out, it would be absurd to expect any 4G tablet anytime soon.

At the Google I/O Conference earlier this month, the company gave away Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch to all attendee developers. On one hand, Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch is being lavishly given away to developers while the actual consumers await it's availability in several countries including India.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch tablet comes with a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra processor, 8 megapixel camera with LED flash at the back and 2 megapixel camera in the front.

Samsung India's spokesperson re-asserted that the Tab 10.1-inch launch is on course for June-July time frame in India. At the start of this month, Samsung India head, Ranjit Yadav had said , "We will launch the 10-inch tablet PC at around Rs 35,000 and the 8-inch device will be priced around Rs 28,000. While the tablet PC market today stands at around 25,000 units a quarter, we expect it to grow exponentially here on."

Real question is whether Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch would be priced above Rs 35,000 for India or the company has taken a lesson from 7-inch Galaxy Tab's launch. Come what may, there are certain consumers who won't minding to wait for Samsung to cut price of the Galaxy Tab 10.1-inch models in the same way the company did for the 7-inch tablet.

Meanwhile, Shin, along with Galaxy Tab 4G promise, also mentioned that Galaxy S III smartphone will be released anytime in first half (Mobile World Congress?) 2012.