Samsung: Not Afraid of the iPad Anymore

Apple's dominance of the tablet market is so overwhelming that most other players in the space tend to "counter-program." Rather than try to match the iPad feature-for-feature or spec-for-spec, they go out of their way to differentiate and offer features the iPad simply doesn't have.

Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets, for instance, are really virtual storefronts for the company's popular services. The Microsoft Surface line offers (more or less) a full PC experience in a tablet form factor, complete with a Desktop.

Even Samsung, Apple's most reliable hardware rival, plays the counter-programming game. For the past two years, Samsung has shined a spotlight on its Galaxy Note line of tablets, whose claim to fame is a digital pen, and all the cool things you can do with it (such as marking up maps with handwritten directions). Read more...