Samsung's Galaxy Tab now available

The Galaxy Tab — Samsung's entry in the growing mobile tablet market — is now available in Canada at Rogers Wireless dealers and is expected to be available in the next few days at select Bell Mobility dealers.

Rogers has set the no-contract price for the 16 GB Tab at $674.99. It costs $539.99 with select three-year mobile internet data plans. 

A spokesman for Bell Mobility said the final release date and pricing for the Tab hasn't been nailed down. But several outlets contacted by CBC News said they were expecting shipments later this week. All Bell Mobility would say about pricing is that a $50 bill credit would be applied when signing up for a Tablet Flex plan. 

The Galaxy Tab features a seven-inch touch-screen display and runs Google's Android 2.2 operating system. Unlike Apple's iPad and related products, the Galaxy is able to display websites that use Flash for multimedia features.

The device also has a three-megapixel camera that can shoot video as well as a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera that will allow for video chatting through third-party applications like Skype, both features that the iPad lacks. The Tab has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G wireless connectivity.

The Tab will be going up against Apple's dominant iPad, which sold almost 4.2 million units in the most recent quarter.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs dismissed the iPad's smaller competitors in a conference call last month, predicting "the current crop of seven-inch tablets are going to be DOA — dead on arrival." The iPad has a 9.7-inch screen.

The iPad's no-contract price for the Wi-Fi-only version sells in Canada for $549 for the model with 16 gigabytes of storage, $649 for 32 GB and $749 for 64 GB. The version that connects to both Wi-Fi and 3G cellular networks will sell for $679 for 16 GB, $779 for 32 GB and $879 for 64 GB.

Tablet market to get crowded

Dell has launched a five-inch tablet-phone hybrid called the Streak, while Research in Motion will release its entry in the tablet wars — the PlayBook — early next year. Like the Galaxy Tab, the PlayBook will also have a seven-inch screen.

Another entry in the tablet market — Toshiba's Folio 100 — is already available in Europe for about $530. It features a 10-inch touch screen and a web cam for video callling, but it lacks the outward facing camera and the ability to shoot video.

Toshiba's device is launching with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability, but a 3G version won't be available until 2011.