The Korea Herald

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Samsung likely to unveil Galaxy Tab S on June 12

By Shin Ji-hye

Published : May 16, 2014 - 21:10

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Samsung Electronics is expected to unveil its new high-end tablet early next month. The company sent media invitations to its Galaxy premiere event, which will take place on June 12 in New York, hinting that it might roll out the new tablet Galaxy Tab S at the event.

A Samsung source confirmed speculation that the company would again adopt an organic light-emitting diode display for its tablets, mentioning it has reduced the production cost of the OLED display

Samsung once used the OLED display for the Galaxy Tab 7.7 in 2011, but it did not last due to the high cost.

Still, industry watchers said it may not be easy to reduce the cost much with the current production line.

“Tablets will have a more affordable price when the company invests in its much-delayed A3 OLED production line,” said Lee Min-hee, an analyst at I’M Investment & Securities.

The investment is expected to be made at the end of this year, he added.

The 8.4 and 10.5-inch tablets will feature an Octa-core Exynos 5 processor, 3GB of RAM, the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system and an 8-megapixel camera. It will also have a fingerprint sensor built into the home button.

Samsung Electronics is gearing up to boost its sales of tablets, aiming to be the global number one player in the market by 2015. The company sold 30 million units last year, grabbing 20 percent of the global market share for tablets.

“With the expansion of the global supply channel and marketing, Samsung will sell around 70 million units this year, an 88 percent increase from last year,” said Kim Dong-won, an analyst at Hyundai Securities.

‘‘Samsung will sell 10 million OLED tablets this year and the portion will continue to increase down the road.”

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)