Sprint and Verizon recently slashed the price of Samsung’s 3G Galaxy Tab for the second time in just one year.
The Android-powered tablet now carries a $200 price tag with a two-year wireless-service contract.
According to Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt, carriers are reducing 3G tablet costs to earn data revenue and compete against Wi-Fi devices which do not require monthly contracts.
“If you’re a tablet vendor, you have to incentivize the carrier to make shelf space for it, and the carrier wants to sell two-year contracts,” McCourt told Bloomberg.
“As tablets go from being early adopter to mass-market, and the total two-year cost to the consumer becomes more and more important, the Wi-Fi versions are far more cost effective.”
Meanwhile, Samsung today confirmed that its Wi-Fi-only version of the 7-inch Galaxy tablet will be be priced at a cool $350.
The 7-inch device runs Android 2.2 (Froyo), and features a 7-inch display (1024 x 600 pixel resolution), 3-megapixel rear camera, secondary 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat, 32GB of internal storage and Adobe Flash support.
