By Min-Jeong Lee and Yun-Hee Kim
Can Samsung Electronics Co. take the No. 1 spot in tablet
computers away from Apple Inc. and conquer that market as it has
dominated smartphones?
The Korean electronics giant is giving it a shot, with a
strategy that piggybacks on the success of its high-end Galaxy S
handsets.
Samsung on Thursday rolled out a pair of high-end, Android-based
tablets that have a more sophisticated look and feel, with a
brighter, thinner and lighter screen than previous models. It is
branding the tablets as an extension of that premium Galaxy S line,
by adding an "S" to the end of the Galaxy Tab name as well.
"What I really tried to achieve was to give it a premium feel,"
said Lee Soo-jung, a senior designer with the team overseeing the
Galaxy Tab S, who says she worked to put shades of gold in the
white-colored tablet.
The company is also pouring more marketing dollars into the
push, throwing for the first time a launch event for the tablets at
a theater in New York's Madison Square Garden, a 46-year-old arena
in midtown Manhattan that is more commonly the site of concerts and
home to local professional basketball and ice hockey teams. Last
year, Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone at Radio
City Music Hall.
Samsung declined to disclose how much it is spending on the
launch; the company spent billions of dollars to promote its
high-end flagship mobile devices globally in the past year.
Mobile-industry experts warn it will take more than glitzy
promotions and glittery devices for Samsung to replicate its
success in smartphones, which are currently the company's top
profit generator.
Samsung's global tablet market share is already growing at the
expense of Apple's, climbing to 22.3% in the first quarter from
17.5% a year earlier, while Apple's share shrank to 32.5% from
40.2%, according to research firm IDC. But the growth of the tablet
market overall is slowing significantly as penetration increases in
developed markets like the U.S. IDC expects global tablet shipments
to rise only 12% this year to 245.4 million units, versus a 52%
increase the year before.
Tablet sales are also showing signs of being undercut by
oversize smartphones known as phablets, a category that Samsung is
pursuing assiduously as well.
Analysts say one challenge for Samsung will be competing with
myriad Android-based tablets that have equally good hardware but
are cheaper. The 10.1-inch version of Samsung's Galaxy Tab S will
cost $499, while the 8.4-inch version will cost $399. Last month,
Chinese startup Xiaomi launched a 7.9-inch tablet called the MiPad
that packs 16-gigabytes of memory for about $240. Taiwanese
computer maker Asustek Computer Inc. unveiled a phone-tablet combo
last month in the U.S. for $199 with a two-year AT&T Inc.
contract.
With the Galaxy Tab S, Samsung is trying to make design the
differentiator. Last month, Samsung named a new head of mobile
design, Lee Min-hyouk, who is almost 15 years younger than his
predecessor and credited with the design of some Galaxy
smartphones.
Samsung designers sweated the Galaxy Tab S details, discussing
everything from whether the back should have tiny circular
punctures like the Galaxy S5 to the ideal tilt for flipping through
Web pages sitting down, say people familiar with the matter.
But critics say Samsung muddies its premium image with its
exhaustive lineup of mobile devices that come in various sizes and
colors as its tries to address different price ranges.
In an interview, Samsung co-Chief Executive J.K. Shin defended
Samsung's "all-segments" for "all-markets" strategy, saying "it's
in our DNA to make everything from premium products to cheap ones."
He stressed that the vast number of products Samsung manufactures
is having an increasing influence on the daily life of consumers in
various markets.
Bringing a better software experience to tablets also remains a
challenge for Samsung.
The company has packed its new tablets with features like call
forwarding, which allows users to take calls from their tablets
after syncing them with their smartphones, and a magazine service
dubbed Papergarden, with which users can view high-resolution
photos from popular fashion magazines.
Samsung executives say the Tab S line will be the company's
flagship tablet model. The tablets will use Samsung's organic light
emitting diode or OLED display and have an 8-megapixel rear
camera.
Samsung will continue to use Android for its future tablets, Mr.
Shin said, adding the company doesn't have immediate plans to bring
its homegrown Tizen operating system to tablets.
Samsung said the Tab S will be available in some markets
starting in July, including the U.S.
-Thomas Gryta contributed to this story.
Write to Min-Jeong Lee at min-jeong.lee@wsj.com and Yun-Hee Kim
at yun-hee.kim@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires