Samsung tablet to be announced this month?

A Samsung tablet could be announced this month, with various reports suggesting an 11 August press event in the US will be used as the launch pad for another iPad rival.

Journalists have been invited to the press conference but Samsung is remaining unsurprisingly tight-lipped about any possible tablet.

Rumoured to be called the Galaxy Tab, the device is said to have a seven-inch display, making it smaller than the popular Apple system, according to Reuters.

At the time of publication, Samsung had not confirmed any details on a possible tablet, but other whisperings have suggested the machine will come with a 1.2GHz Hummingbird processor, 16GB of storage and will run on Google's Android 2.2 OS.

Many have suggested the device will borrow much from the Samsung Galaxy S, so check out our review of the smartphone here.

Meanwhile, a RIM tablet looks to be on the cards as well, with a report claiming such a device will be introduced in November.

Two people familiar with the situation said the device will be a similar shape to the iPad, according to Bloomberg, and will feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.

A range of hardware tech giants are joining the tablet market, with Microsoft recently talking up its own range of Windows-powered products during a presentation at the firm's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.