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Samsung’s Galaxy S Android phone is officially a runaway success. It has sold five million units since its launch at the end of June, just over three months ago, proving that a single Android phone is capable of iPhone-like sales figures. The Galaxy S joins Motorola’s Droid as one of the fastest-selling Android handsets.

The Galaxy S, soon to be joined by the Galaxy Tab tablet, has a huge four-inch AMOLED screen, a 5MP camera and the ability to quickly drain the battery and bring the browser to its knees by running Adobe’s Flash plugin.

The numbers break down like this: Of five million units, two million were sold in the US, one million in Samsung’s home country Korea and the rest in other world markets, including China, where the handset went on sale in September. The announcement was made by Samsung at another launch event in Tokyo, Japan, where the Galaxy S will go on sale in late November, running Android 2.2 Froyo.

Samsung unleashes a GALAXY of opportunities in Japan [Korea Newswire via ]

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Samsung is milking the launch of its 7-inch tablet called the Galaxy Tab by trickling out a little bit of news about it every other week. After announcing the Galaxy Tab’s launch in Europe earlier this month, Samsung held a press conference Thursday to say the device will be available in the U.S in the next few weeks.

The Galaxy Tab will be available on all the four major wireless service providers — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. There’s still no word on pricing or exact shipping date for the Galaxy Tab. The devices, which support 3G and WiFi, will arrive in time for the holiday shopping season, says Samsung. A Wi-Fi only version of the tablet will be available in the future.

The Galaxy Tab runs Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and has a LCD display with a 1024 x 600 resolution. At 0.8 pounds, the device weighs just about half as much as the iPad. It also supports Adobes Flash Player 10.1 so it can display web pages that run Flash something the iPad cant. The Galaxy Tab will run many Android Market apps in full screen and those that are not scalable will be framed and centered on the screen at 800 x 400 resolution.

Another feature that U.S. customers of Galaxy Tab will get is the Media Hub, a mobile widget that will allow users to download and rent movies.

The Galaxy Tab will come with three accessories: a $100 keyboard dock, a $50 desktop dock, which will double as a charger, and a $100 car and GPS dock.

Photo: Samsung

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Steve Jobs has attributed the iPod’s and iPhone’s success to Apple’s ability to write better software than the entrenched Asian consumer tech companies. Now that Korean giant Samsung has Google’s Android OS, they don’t have to write better software than Apple to stay successful; they just have to make compelling devices. On the heels of Apple TV and Sony’s partnership role in Google TV, Samsung’s next Android-powered devices may be a line of net-connected, software-driven HDTVs.

At least, that’s what Samsung’s TV head Yoon Boo Keun told Korean press today, Bloomberg reports. Bloomberg also cited analysts predicting that the market for internet-capable TVs will break wide-open in 2012, with as many as 87.6 million internet-capable TVs by 2013, about six times as many as today.

Samsung is in a tough spot here, but one with potentially huge upside. The company is already making 3D televisions with web-browsing capabilities, and has long sought to develop its own operating system for phones and TVs. Google Android gives its Galaxy devices an instant foothold in touchscreen smartphones and tablets to rival Apple’s iOS devices. Samsung’s strength in designing and manufacturing TV sets, when paired with Android’s interface and app marketplace, would seem to offer them a sizable advantage breaking into digital TV. You could get an app- and net-capable TV without any additional boxes.

However, Google doesn’t have Apple’s experience negotiating with media companies — particularly in Asia. That seems to be both the benefit and drawback of any venture where each player contributes and controls its own piece. Apple doesn’t have that problem.

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How much will Samsung’s Galaxy Tab cost? The guesses range from $300 up, but a listing on Amazon Germany puts the 7-inch tablet at 800, or $1,020. If this actually turns out to be true (and I suspect it will), then the device will almost certainly be a mainstream flop.

Say what you like about the iPad, but don’t argue that it isn’t cheap. The entry-level model is just $500, which is somewhat miraculous for what it packs in, and even more surprising given that Apple likes to make a good chink of change on its hardware sales. Still don’t agree? Take a look at the Dell streak, a tablet with a much smaller screen which runs Google’s Android OS. It costs $550.

As a smaller tablet, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab needs to have a smaller price. Lets be generous for a moment and say that Amazon is listing the 32GB model (the page doesn’t say if it has 16GB or 32GB storage). Next, we’ll take the price of the 32 GB iPad Wi-Fi+3G (the Tab has 3G as standard): $729.00. The Tab is almost $300 more.

I’m sure there will be a market for this little device: it certainly looks good, and Samsung has sold over a million Galaxy S smartphones in just a month and a half. But is it too late? It seems like nobody can yet beat the iPad on price (hell, nobody can beat the iPod Touch on price, and that’s been around for years). Given that the one thing that rivals had over the iPod was price (the iPad was always a little more expensive than other MP3 players) and they still could’t crack Apple’s hold on the market, things don’t look good. And that’s before we even get to the apps.

Samsung Galaxy Tab [Amazon. Thanks, Sascha!]

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

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Samsung’s bet on Android seems to have paid off big for the company. Samsung has shipped more than one million Galaxy S phones in the U.S. since the devices were launched in mid-July.

The news makes the Galaxy S devices one of the hottest Android phones available today, though the smartphones haven’t reached iPhone-like popularity yet. Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 devices in just the first three days of sales in June.

So far, Samsung has two models of the Galaxy S phones, Samsung Vibrant and SamsungCapitvate, available on T-Mobile and AT&T respectively. But two more Galaxy S devices are expected to debut soon–Samsung Epic 4G on Sprint and Samsung Fascinate on Verizon Wireless.

Common to all these devices are features such as AMOLED display, a 1GHz processor called ‘Hummingbird’ and entertainment apps. Samsung says all Galaxy S devices will be upgraded to Android 2.2 Froyo operating system.

It will be interesting to see if the Galaxy S phones can topple Motorola Droid and the HTC Evo as the best-selling Android phones.Motorola recently launched Droid 2 on Verizon Wireless and the Evo has reigned on Sprint as the first 4G phone.

Samsung’s Epic 4G, which is scheduled to be available on Sprint starting August 31, could finally give the Evo some real competition.

Meanwhile, Samsung is gearing up to launch a 7-inch tablet in September called the ‘Galaxy Tab’. The tablet will run Android 2.2 Froyo OS, include video-calling capability and full web browsingwhich likely means support for Flash, according to a teaser video that Samsung posted last week.

Photo: Samsung Vibrant (Stefan Armijo/Wired.com)

Source:wired.com

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