Samsung and American Airlines announced they will deploy 6,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets for premium class, in-flight entertainment on select flights later this year. The roll-out is designed to help promote Samsung's Android 3.1 tablet in the enterprise market, according to the company.

Samsung has found an interesting way to gain traction for its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computers: get them on airplanes as media entertainment devices. Samsung said June 13 it has partnered with American Airlines to offer 6,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets for premium class, in-flight entertainment on select flights later this year.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Android 3.1
(Click to enlarge)

The tablets will replace the airline's current personal entertainment device in AA's premium cabins on transcontinental flights served with 767-200 and 767-300 aircraft between New York's JFK and Los Angeles, JFK and San Francisco, and Miami and Los Angeles, says Samsung. The tablets will also be available on international flights to and from Europe and South America served with 767-300 aircraft, as well as transcontinental flights departing from Boston to Los Angeles served with 757 aircraft.

 Samsung will customize the Tab for American's in-flight entertainment needs, including the addition of expanded memory, says the company.

The deployment represents a creative way for a tablet maker to sell its wares in an enterprise capacity, according to Samsung. "Our engagement with American Airlines further illustrates the growing interest and demand we're seeing from enterprise customers for the Samsung Galaxy portfolio," stated Tim Wagner, vice president and general manager of enterprise sales for Samsung Mobile.

Equipped with Google's updated Android 3.1 version of the tablet-oriented "Honeycomb" operating system, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (pictured at right) is 8.6 millimeters thin and weighs only 1.25 pounds. The slate, seen by many as a legitimate challenger to Apple's iPad, is powered by a 1GHz, dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. It employs a 1280 by 800 pixel display, a two-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats and a three-megapixel rear camera.

T-Mobile began selling a limited quantity" of the Wi-Fi-only version of the Tab 10.1 exclusively at the Best Buy Union Square store in New York City on June 8, charging $499 for the 16GB version and $599 for the 32GB version. Starting June 17, the Wi-Fi-only Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be available nationwide.

Verizon Wireless is selling a Galaxy Tab 10.1 later this summer, equipped with a 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) broadband radio. Verizon will sell the 16GB model for $530 and the 32GB model for $630, both on two-year contracts.

eWEEK reviewed the limited edition Google I/O Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Android 3.0 and found it to be quite serviceable for media consumption. Presumably the update to Android 3.1 — which purports to fix a number of Android 3.0's bugs and other problems — should only improve the experience.

Clint Boulton is a writer for eWEEK.

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