Samsung lines up an Atom tablet as defence against Apple iPad

Virtually every tablet, slate or iPad-alike that hits the market at the moment looks like a panic launch and the one that has been signalled as coming from Samsung this week, can be no exception. Samsung has had tablets in the past, notably the Q1 MID (pictured), but basically they are PCs shrunk to fit the form factor.

It has not announced a name for this potential disaster, or a price or exact launch date, but some details of the design have been announced in Korea. It will be Intel Atom based and come out in the second half of the year, running Windows. Experts say that such a device will require a fan or it would run excessively hot for a handheld.

When will everybody realize that using the Intel Atom to compete with the slate is a non-starter. The power requirements alone will kill any design based on that, because the iPad is a specialized form of a smartbook, and because genuine rivals, with tightly integrated graphics cores based on new chips, are not expected to come out until last quarter 2010, these are temporary fixes, based on the Intel Atom, basically a netbook in a tablet form.

Of course Samsung will have the use of its Bada App Store, which it will have to make compatible with the Windows first off, which will make it a viable tablet or slate up against the Apple iPad, but only in Far Eastern markets like its home Korea. Here in Europe and the US, Bada is unlikely to bring it any success against Apple.