nVidia’s best Tegra 2 designs delayed to Q4?

KitGuru gets access to a lot of data as it flows across the interwibble. With launches and delays part of the ebb and flow of modern computing, it must be particularly annoying when one company's glory is interfered with by another product's failure to launch. KitGuru fills a glass of water and downs a tablet.

Microsoft is on the run. At least a little bit. The historical gravy train that came with being the only tolerated monopoly in the (OS) market, seems to be coming to an end in the face of a relentless barrage of Android launches. While some of Microsoft's senior European management team has tried to proclaim that ‘competition is good for the market' with messages like ‘now you will see our very best work', it's really all a bit of a pain for the Redmond fellowship.

When Asus created the netbook class of products by launching the EeePC, Linux enjoyed one of its fastest periods of market share growth. In response, Microsoft unlocked one of its vast array of war-chests and unleashed a powerful campaign to re-educate the world's populace. In less than 6 months, we had all (mostly) returned to the fold and were singing a harmonious Windows tune.

This time it is a little different. Andy Rubin's brainchild Android – for all its early failings – has captured the imagination. Backed by Google since 2005, this fledgling OS is now starting to look like a serious contender, with the 3.1 version highly anticipated in the tablet space.

nVidia emails, intercepted by KitGuru, seem to show that the Tegra team are very excited by Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch. It has been designed to make good use of the dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, wrapped up with an ultra-low-power nVidia GPU and wearing a Tegra 2 tag. Pundits are predicting that this could be the first product to stand tall in front of the iPad 2 – so when can we buy one?

Now there's a good question.

According to nVidia's Director of Product Marketing, Matt Wuebbling, the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was in the shops and available in stores on 8th June.

However, searching any part of Google Shopping (and they should know, if anyone does) reveals nothing. Plenty of stores are offering to take your $600 (£500?) – like our friends over at Best Buy – but there's no sign of a shipping date. Indeed, some knob called Xman25 from Utah has already managed to review it and award the Galaxy 5 stars – which is a neat trick considering it doesn't really exist yet. Funnier fact?  Half a dozen people found the review useful (thankfully, 33 people realised that Xman25 is a dick).

Just to prove that UK posters can be as dumb as Americans, Vodafone's Galaxy page has 6 reviews – including someone called Xfan – claiming that it has been out for ages, while Vodafone themselves have clearly labelled the page “Coming soon”.

nVidia's new Tegra baby runs Android 3.1 and, according to sources close to Google, the launch of that OS update is unlikely to happen much before the end of Q3. If you're planning to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, then we suggest you avoid advanced pre-ordering for now – who knows what else will be in the market by 1st September.

KitGuru says: Androids may or may not dream about electric sheep, but we're prepared to bet that nVidia's Tegra team is dreaming of an operating system that launches on time. How many times and on how many platforms have we seen hardware storm ahead of software in terms of development cycles?  Imagine what the world would look like if they were in lock-step?  Ah yes, Apple.

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