Rumors and new models roil the tablet market

Jeremy Hobson: Samsung is out with a new tablet today. Well, actually, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is being called a Phablet — as in a cross between a phone and a tablet. It’ll compete of course with the iPad, but also with the Nook from Barnes and Noble and the Kindle Fire from Amazon.

Marketplace’s Adrienne Hill reports.

Adriene Hill: The tablet world is awash in rumor, speculation and a whole lot of tablets. Is a smaller iPad coming? A new Kindle Fire? And just how special is this Galaxy?

Eric Franklin: It seems like every week I’m either writing about or reviewing a new tablet, so I’m not really bored over here.

Eric Franklin is a senior editor at CNET. He says there are all these new devices with new features, like styluses, keyboards, kickstands.

Franklin: And everyone is trying different things to see what really sticks. And I don’t think anyone really knows where it’s going to end up in a few years.

Carolina Milanesi is a researcher at Gartner.

Carolina Milanesi: Consumers see the iPad as a benchmark for what a tablet should be like.

But there is one other feature the upstarts are trying to compete on: price. Right now, $199 seems to be the sweet spot.

I’m Adriene Hill for Marketplace.