Tablets... thinner but too late?

So at CTIA, Samsung announced not only the anticipated 8.9" Galaxy Tab, but also a totally redesigned 10.1" Galaxy Tab (which was just announced a month earlier). Spurred by the thinness of the new iPad 2, both of these tablets are 8.6mm thin, .2 mm thinner than the iPad 2.

www.engadget.com/.../samsung-galaxy-tab-8-9-and-new-galaxy-tab-10-1-thinner-than-the/

When there was a report about a Samsung VP reconsidering their 10.1" product based on what Apple released, I thought he was just talking out loud... but I guess not considering the new mock-up of the 10.1".

The only problem is these won't be out until the summer (the 10.1" has a specific release date of June 8). If anyone remembers, the HP Touchpad also has a summer release and the HTC EVO View (or Flyer) was just announced with a summer date too.

Who has time to wait 3 to 5 months while the iPad 2 is sucking up everyone's money? At least RIM's Playbook will be out on April 19.

And by summer... the iPhone 5 will be in full hype mode and these new tablets will have to compete with those headlines.

While everyone can hate on Apple for their closed systems, design etc... you have to give it up to them in the marketing sales strategy, when they announce a new product, it's out either same day or shortly thereafter. At this rate, by the time any of these companies get it right with their 2nd revision (ie Xoom 2, Galaxy Tab(s) 2, Playbook 2 and Touchpad 2), Apple could be on their iPad 3 or 4.