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Samsung moved late into Android smartphones, and only got it right with its second generation, Galaxy S. But it is determined not to make the same mistake in tablets, and its promised GalaxyTab could be one of the first such devices to come to market running Android.

A host of vendors are pledging tablets to challenge the iPad, but the Android community has been slow to deliver actual products. Details of the GalaxyTab have been leaking out gradually, and this week, Samsung almost unveiled the gadget in full - perhaps goaded by compatriot LG's comments that it would launch a tablet in its Optimus Android range, to date completely overshadowed by Galaxy, that would be better than the iPad.

In a slick teaser video, Samsung revealed some of the specifications of the GalaxyTab, which will run Android 2.2 - already a step ahead of one of the few Android tablets available, the Dell Streak, a 5-inch hybrid between superphone and slate. The GalaxyTab falls between the Streak and the iPad in size, with a seven-inch touchscreen display, expected to use Samsung's key differentiating screen technology, Super AMOLED.

Like the Galaxy S phone, its big brother will be heavily geared towards video, supporting the vendor's full motion video store, HD video viewing, HDMI-out, video calling and Flash. It will also come with a dedicated e-reader application and a bookstore is likely to follow, as part of the wider content and apps storefront that Samsung keeps promising, but has only rolled out step by step.

The full launch should take place next week, on September 2 at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, where handsets and tablets are expected to take center stage. Plenty of gaps remain to be filled at that event, not least pricing, any carrier deals or other channels to market, and whether the Tab will run 3G as well as Wi-Fi.

In May, Verizon Wireless' CEO Lowell McAdam said the cellco was evaluating Motorola, LG and Samsung as tablet partners. It is expected to work closely with Motorola to launch a tablet optimized to the FiOS broadband/IPTV service, but is likely to roll out a range of the devices, as AT&T also plans to do. These could include the Tab and the LG Optimus, and we might expect its close Android partner HTC to be in the running too, when it unveils its own tablet, predicted near the end of the year.

Other operating systems could figure in the carriers' strategies too, with RIM planning the BlackPad (running BlackBerry OS or a new system based on its QNX purchase); HP working on webOS and Windows 7; several vendors creating Windows slates; and the new web-optimized OSs on the horizon too, including Google's Chrome OS and Nokia/Intel's MeeGo.

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