Can It All be So Simple?

New video of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" tablet.

Gruber already pointed out that it looks like it could be a decent product, and that it's an obvious imitation of the iPad. Those two points are probably related.

I've read a number of comments arguing that it's real competition for the iPad, an iPad-killer, going to cost Apple its dominant position in that segment of the market, just like Android phones have done with the iPhone, etc.

But I kind of think that Apple couldn't be more pleased to see this video herald the arrival of another decent tablet computer. I assume that Apple views the iPad as the future of personal computing. Additionally, as a general matter, I don't think that Apple cares about controlling all or even most of the markets that it enters; rather, it cares about making products that it believes in and selling them at a profit. As long as it can do both, I don't think the company cares overly about its market share, who else is selling products in the same segments, how those products compare to its own, or its customers' complaints about else its product should or shouldn't do.

So, assuming further that Apple is making a fairly significant wager that tablets represent a significant portion of how people will do their computing in the future, the best thing that could happen is for another company to release a competent product in the same segment. It validates the concept. It makes consumers believe that there's more to it than an Apple fetish for style. If the competent alternative largely apes the iPad, so much the better, because it simultaneously validates Apple's vision while providing a point of contrast for the specific ways that Apple thinks this product should work. Since I think it likely that Samsung simply won't get video chat to work seamlessly, it also provides Apple with an opportunity to turn the second generation iPad into an example of how to do some things right. I actually hope the Galaxy Tab is as good as it looks in that video.