The headline reads "Remote control is a TV", and the case in point is Samsung's then new remote control, which also works as a secondary portable TV screen and can handle images, music and video via a wifi-connection that also enables Internet access. All in all, it seems like a prototype for Samsung's Galaxy tab, right?
The first Galaxy tablet was demonstrated by Samsung on 2 September at the 2010 IFA in Berlin. It sports a 7" screen, just like the remote control/tv and looks practically identical. The device featured in Lyd og Bilde was bundled with the purchase of a Samsung's LED/LCD TV screen, hence the clumsy term remote control/TV. In 2009 the tablet segment of digital devices had yet to be defined. As we are aware, it was not until Apple released the iPad in April 2010 that tablet computers were recognized as a market niche.
Naming in itself is hard. Even though "tablet" or "tablet computer" seems to be the preferred term, the jury may still be out on what shall be the generic term for devices such as the iPad and the Galaxy Tab. And the issue raised inadvertedly by the note in Lyd og Bilde goes beyond the naming game, and speaks more profoundly of the nature of technological innovations and how to define multi-purpose devices.
The complex origins of a technological innovation is not a new discovery. The history of radio technology and radio broadcasting is a well-known example of technology and its uses being unpredictable and changing. There is a long way from the early military uses of radio signals to today's morning radio shows.
So the difficulties Samsung (and Lyd og Bilde) had with defining the 7" LCD device are perhaps not so odd. After all, it took a company with the combined marketing and innovation skills of Apple to establish the tablet segment of the consumer electronics market.
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