Samsung unveils faster mobile chip, the Exynos 4212 Tweet

Samsung Electronics at the eighth annual Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum at the Westin Taipei Hotel yesterday unveiled an improved version of its Exynos system-on-a-chip solution for smartphones and tablets. The Exynos 4212 silicon is a successor to the 4210 processor which powers the company’s Galaxy S II smartphone. The new chip features a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processing core clocked at 1.5GHz (versus a 1.2GHz CPU core in the Exynos 4210). The Exynos 4212 will be manufactured using a 32-nanometer process so it should draw less power than its predecessor. It is also 30 percent more efficient, Samsung claims, and sports a 50 percent better graphics performance.

Unfortunately, the company wouldn’t say which graphics processor unit the new Exynos 4212 chip is utilizing. For comparison, the Exynos 4210 in the Galaxy S II smartphone packs in graphics processing unit based on the quad-core Mali-400 core from ARM Holdings, a fables chip maker from the UK. It’s the fastest GPU in any current smartphone, benchmarks show. However, the Mali-400 GPU core falls short in the triangle throughput tests, which is a major disadvantage over the iPad 2′s A5 processor that clocks nine times the graphics performance of the original iPad’s A4 chip.

With that in mind, Samsung may have switched to another GPU provider for the new Exynos 4211 chip, but this has not been confirmed at press time. Samples will be available by the end of this year so the upcoming high-end smartphones and tablets from Samsung will likely run a 1.5GHz Exynos 4212 chip. Again, more powerful performance while drawing less power.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus set for 2011 release Tweet

Remember way back in the fall of 2010, when former Apple CEO Steve Jobs teed off on pint-sized tablets? "7-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad," he said on a now-infamous earnings call. Jobs, of course, was almost certainly referring to the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, which was released around that time, and which went on to sell quite briskly. Today, Samsung announced it would seek to capitalize on the success of the very first Galaxy Tab with a new device dubbed the (deep breath) Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. The new tablet is a full-featured beast, from the 1.2GHz Dual Core processor to the dual cameras and the Android Honeycomb OS. It's also extremely small: Samsung says the Plus weighs 0.75 pounds and measures less than half an inch. "Enhanced portability ensures that it fits easily into an inside-jacket pocket or a handbag, making it an ideal device for those who need to stay productive and entertained while on-the-move," Samsung reps wrote in a press statement. Fair enough. But will consumers opt for a tablet with a 7-inch screen? (By comparison, the iPad screen is about 10 inches.) Well, Amazon certainly thinks so. Earlier this week, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took the wraps off the the long-awaited Kindle Fire, which is expected to launch in mid-November. The Fire, like the (deep breath, again) Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, gets a 7-inch screen; unlike the Plus, it will sell for $199. (Samsung hasn't slapped a price tag on the Plus, but if past devices are an indication, a base model will probably go for around $450.) Release date for Tab 7.0 Plus is set for later this year. In related news, next week – legal troubles or not – Samsung will bring its Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablet to the US market. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 will ship at two price points: 16GB for $469, and 32GB for $569.

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Amazon Kindle Fire No True iPad Rival Tweet

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos introduced the long-awaited, heavily anticipated Kindle Fire Sept. 28 in New York. The slate, which uses a custom version of Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system, costs $199.99 and is expected to ship Nov. 15.

This may not surprise many people following the red-hot tablet market Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) created, but Piper Jaffray and other analysts don't believe the Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire will compete head-to-head with the iPad.

No one was really expecting Amazon to produce a premium consumer electronics device. The e-commerce giant's legacy of low-cost Kindle e-readers put wood behind that theory.

Sure, $199 is an aggressive enough price point to dupe pundits into thinking Amazon deigns to claw at the stout underbelly of Apple, which sells its 16GB iPad 2 for $499, but the product specs show otherwise.

There are major differences between the forthcoming Kindle Fire and Apple's freshest tablet, the iPad 2, that put the Kindle Fire at one end of the market and the iPad 2 at the top.

Apple's iPad 2 has a 9.7-inch screen. The Kindle Fire possesses a 7-inch display. The iPad 2 has front- and rear-facing cameras to enable photo and video shoots, as well as video chats.

The Kindle Fire has no cameras. iPad 2 has a microphone. The Kindle Fire doesn't. iPad 2 may be purchased in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models. The Kindle Fire comes with 8GB of internal storage, but offers all of the cloud storage a consumer can eat.

Where Apple reigns atop the high end of the tablet market, Amazon has targeted the low-hanging fruit grabbers, and plans to rely on its toy chest of Web-based music, movies, books and storage to woo consumers.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster noted, "With the Kindle Fire, we believe Amazon is attempting a unique tablet strategy by leveraging a superior cloud-based content delivery system tied with Prime to make money off of a device we believe will sell at a loss."

Of course, his caveat is that because Amazon is relying on a superior cloud-based content system to counter Apple's premium hardware and software choices, the Kindle Fire remains a step or two behind the iPad for the time being. This thinking puts the spotlight back on the rumor that Amazon will soon launch an improved Kindle Fire with a 10-inch screen.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber put it best:

"The iPad takes it on from the high end. It's the best possible device in that price range from the world's best maker of devices. The Kindle Fire takes it on from the low end. The iPad is a credible laptop replacement for many people-and with iCloud and another year or two of hardware improvements, that's going to be true for more and more people. The Kindle Fire is a laptop replacement for almost no one. It's a peripheral, not a second computer-and it's priced accordingly."

Munster remains comfortable with his previous estimate that Amazon will sell 2.5 million Kindle Fires this quarter to close out the year.

Interestingly, Munster noted that his conservative sales estimate is based on Amazon's history with Kindle e-reader shortages that he believes will extend to the Kindle Fire. "If supply were not an issue, we believe Amazon could sell closer to 4 million Kindle Fires in the holiday quarter," he said.

Munster expects the Fire to lead the pack of Android tablets that will take share from the iPad in 2012. He expects the iPad to go from its current 90 percent market share to 60 percent in 2012 as the Kindle Fire and other popular Android slates emerge to entice consumers.

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