Samsung Australia launches the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids

In one of the slightly more surprising additions to the Samsung Galaxy Tab lineup in Australia, Samsung has today announced local pricing and availability for the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids device, which you can see depicted above. It features a user mode designed specifically for younger users (and of course, child friendly bright colours), while also featuring a standard mode for adults who might like to play too.

Designed specifically to cater to separate age groups, the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids is a 7″ tablet with bright yellow bezel, orange rubber casing, and when in the special Kids Mode, a range of content and apps designed to entertain and help support early childhood learning.

Flip the switch (well, it’s not that easy, kids can’t do it accidentally) and the Tab 3 Kids transforms into a Galaxy Tab 3 7″ device, offering the adults in the house the standard Android features, such as email, surfing the web and access to content using any internet connection.

Arno Lenior, Samsung Australia Marketing Director, told Ausdroid that the Tab 3 Kids represents the company’s commitment to offering choice to the Australian market. In particular:

GALAXY Tab 3 Kids is an exciting addition to the Samsung GALAXY brand of mobile devices as it’s the first of its kind that we have offered in Australia. It offers something for parents and children that make it an ideal tablet for families.

Research has shown that children influence tablet adoption in Australian homes, so we feel it is important to offer devices and content that can offer experiences for different age groups.

The device comes pre-loaded with a range of apps that parents can enable for their kids to use, offered through an app service called (funnily enough) the Kids Store. The Tab 3 Kids comes pre-loaded with games, e-books and educational and entertainment apps which cover subject areas like basic literacy, problem solving skills and a creative outlet.

At launch, there’s a Kid Grip Cover which, as the name implies, makes it easier for smaller hands to grip the device safely, and also includes a stylus (called a C Pen) to allow kids to draw and create images on the new device.

Available from mid-November, the Galaxy Tab 3 Kids will retail for $299 from Samsung Experience Stores in Sydney and Melbourne, with other retailers soon to be announced. The Kids Grip Cover will retail for $69.95 through the same outlets.