South Korea's Samsung Electronics said on October 5 it would release a smartphone and tablet PC in Japan before December, its latest move in an ongoing battle with US giant Apple. The planned launch of the Galaxy S smartphone and its first tablet PC, the Galaxy Tab, in Japan comes amid growing rivalry with Apple at home and abroad.
Samsung launched its Galaxy S domestically in June, seven months after Apple's iPhone hit South Korea. Samsung has since launched its smartphone in China and other countries. Tablet PCs feature bigger screens than smartphones and have no keyboards, instead employing touchscreens or stylus pens as input devices. The global table PC market is expected to expand to 30 million units next year, from 13 million this year, according to industry data.