Is it a phone or a computer and what on earth does that button do exactly!?

A few years ago things were fairly simple when it came to deciding what was a computer and what was a phone.

A computer tended to fill a room and a phone was attached by a wire to the wall.

Then along came mobile phones and laptop computers.

It was still possible to tell the difference though. You held the phone to your ear to make calls and you used your fingers to type on the computer keyboard.

In April of this year the Apple iPad was released. This was a tablet PC and although if you were clever you could make internet based phone calls it wasn’t possible to make calls via a mobile network.

Samsung have just released their 7-inch Android-powered tablet here in the UK. This is slightly different to the iPad in that it is designed to make calls and is now available on all the major mobile networks.

So, is it a phone or a computer?

In fact do we care anyway?

Well, if you’re a lucky person that has been provided with a Samsung galaxy tab by your employer then yes, you probably will care whether it’s a phone or a computer.

For UK tax purposes, a phone provided by an employer is a tax free benefit (i.e. you will not be charged income tax on it). A computer on the other hand is a taxable benefit and generally the value on which tax will be applied will be equal to 20% of the cost of the computer.

So, in summary, if you were provided with a Samsung Galaxy Tab phone by your employer it’s tax free.

If however you’re provided with a Samsung Galaxy Tab computer by your employer you will be taxed on it.

Unfortunately for any individuals in such a position this guidance by the UK tax authorities indicates that it is likely to be taxed on the employee.

As well as a tax discussion, the Samsung Galaxy Tab also provides an interesting example of some of the challenges companies can face when launching products in different countries.

The photo to the left shows the Galaxy Tab when it was first launched in the European country of Romania.

There is a button marked “Porn” clearly visible on the screenshot.

This isn’t what you may think though and doesn’t provide a short cut to adult related content.

It is in fact an abbreviation that Samsung initially used for the “home button”. “Porn” was used as an abbreviation of the word “Pornire” which means “start” in the Romanian language.

Samsung quickly changed the abbreviation following its launch.