Sprint dropping Gingerbread update for Samsung Galaxy Tab

Early adopters that bought into the tablet craze by picking up a Samsung Galaxy Tab as then the only viable iPad alternative will be delighted to know that carrier Sprint has begun pushing the Android 2.3 Gingerbread software update over-the-air. Their gadget girl Michelle Leff boasted on Twitter that Sprint is the first carrier to roll out Gingerbread for the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The new firmware brings HID Bluetooth and it updates the device’s baseband software to version S:P100.08 S.EF17 (build GINGERBREAD.EF17).

As you know, Gingerbread is technically a phone operating system. Google was strongly discouraging vendors from building tablet products until Honeycomb arrived. Samsung, of course, didn’t listen. As the iPad had taken everyone by surprise, the Korean gadget maker went on to launch the Galaxy Tab in September of last year. Despite Steve Jobs’ claims that the seven-inch tablets will be dead on arrival because users would need to sandpaper their fingers down to hit the tiny on-screen controls, the form factor has actually been quite compelling, at least among the Android community.