Talk about brand dilution. I have no idea what the "Galaxy" brand stands for anymore. Why do they have to create a product for every possible demographic? Is the "Galaxy Beam" really needed? Do we really need another Galaxy Note form factor that intersects with the Galaxy Tab"?
They've just announced the Tab 2 (10.1), which is actually thicker than the original Tab, and has very similar specs.
It seems quite likely that Samsung is going to use "Tab" for it's low end tablets and "Note" for its high end tablets.
As for Beam, it's a niche product, and has a place. A very few people will buy it and be happy that it exists, and the rest of us can safely ignore it. Large companies can successfully address both volume and niche markets simultaneously without shortchanging the niche or diluting the volume markets, although this is a very difficult task and most companies who try, fail.
I guess my point with the Beam is, why isn't the projection a peripheral? Seriously, how often are you going to need to use a projection feature from your phone? Something like this (http://www.flash-memory-store.com/hand-held-iphone4-4s-dlp-p...) for the iPhone seems reasonable if that feature is a must-have for you.
I don't get it. I thought Galaxy Note clearly referred to the medium-sized stylus-driven PDA replacement - why would they compete against their own Galaxy Tab brand? Does anyone know if there is a technical reason to separate stylus-driven and multitouch devices?
The Note uses a separate input mechanism for its S-Pen input, which is licensed from Wacom. They could use the capacitive input layer for both finger and pen input, but that would not work as well -- compare Galaxy Note reviews to Samsung Vu reviews.
So the pen is actually adding significantly to the cost of the Note, which is probably why they're shifting the pen-less Tab to the low-end of the market.
Jobs called a pen an 'automatic failure', but he's not Korean, Chinese or Japanese. A pen is a much better input mechanism for Chinese and Korean characters than a keyboard, virtual or no. In North America, the target audience for the Note probably overlaps fairly well with the type of people who buy Wacom tablets for their computer -- a very small minority, but those who do love them.
