Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Tablet saturation in the consumer space and a need to capture the enterprise has Samsung pushing for ProTab and ProNOTE adoption for the BYOD crowd.
Samsung is the leading Android OEM and manufactures a dizzying array of smartphones, phablets, tablets and ‘tweener’ devices such as smart cameras and even smartphones that cater to the consumer market and also professionals. They have all the sizes and permutations you can imagine, for better consumer choice, and now they’re applying the carpet bombing strategy to enterprise.
Their recently revealed NotePro and TabPro lines of enterprise grade tablets are the next step forward. “We think the 12.1-inch TabPro is a game changer and we at Samsung believe in device democracy,” said Vlastimir Lalovic, Director, Wireless Product Realization at Samsung Canada.
The crown jewel of this latest salvo of tablets is the rather large Galaxy NotePro, which is a 12.2-inch device that has a display that’s bigger than many 11-inch Ultrabooks. A tablet-first device, Samsung has given the NotePro SPen functionality, a stunning 12.2” screen with 4-million-pixel clarity and an octa-core processor that will enable ‘multitasking’ by way of four concurrent screens running four apps at the same time. The tablets are expected to be made available by February 28th.
The 12.2″ tablet will come with Samsung’s KNOX security features built-in, three months of access to Cisco’s WebEx Conferencing, and three months free subscription to business-focused magazines by way of the included next issue app.
Samsung includes the Hancom Office suite, which emulates the functionality of Microsoft Office on Android.
Pricing for the NotePro is around $750. And while Samsung offers a variety of keyboard cover accessories, you know, for typing stuff at the office, these will be sold separately for around another $100 or so.
That’s getting up there in convertible notebook and Ultrabook territory which is a daring move for an Android tablet.
These new tablets also run the Magazine UX, a spin on Samsung’ TouchWiz overlay that resembles browsing apps like Flipboard.
I also got to see the TabPRO 8.4, and the TabPRO 10.1 which are the first portable-sized high-resolution Android tablets that also features Android 4.4 KitKat, the very latest version of the Android operating system. At first glance, these look identical to the consumer versions, but offer added business-focused functionality, better resolution and better specs all around.
Enterprise is the new battle ground for mobile devices. With its latest products, Samsung has fired the first shot and indicated it is serious about dominating this space. How will competition react and is differentiating products specifically for business and enterprise an upcoming trend?
