“In a nice scoop at TechCrunch, MG Siegler offers a detailed rundown on Amazon’s much-anticipated Android-based tablet,” Chunka Mui writes for Forbes. “The Amazon tablet is not going to be all that huge. Barnes and Noble should be afraid. Apple, however, has little to fear.”
“Amazon has essentially built a special-purpose device focused on its own content and applications—but at the cost of other capabilities,” Mui writes. “This casts doubt on whether the Kindle tablet can cross over and compete in the larger, general-purpose tablet market.”
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Mui writes, “Amazon’s tablet, for example, won’t have a camera or 3G wireless networking capability, both of which are standard features on other general purpose tablets. Its 7-inch screen and memory capacity also pale in comparison to the iPad and other tablets. None of these features are show-stoppers for Amazon’s core e-reader audience but will limit the Amazon tablet’s wider appeal.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
There is a large Android modding community that builds generic and custom Android configurations for popular Android (and even non-Android) devices (phones and tablets). They will loooove this Amazon tablet. I’m sure, as soon as it hits the market, they will hack it, develop a generic Gingerbread (or even Honeycomb) ROM for it and turn a customized e-reader device into a fully functional Android tablet (just as they did with the Nook).
People in developing countries love these devices. Rather than getting very crappy, cheap Chinese no-name tablets (with resistive touch-screen and a stylus), they can get a pretty high-quality build, with capacitive touch-screen, decent processing and memory, and still pay less. All they need to figure out is how to get one shipped from America to their home country. Nook already has a devoted following in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and other parts of the world where people make less than $1000 per month.
This is an entirely different world from iPad’s.
This is an entirely different world from iPad’s.
Yea, for a few hundred geeks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m one as well but I just can’t see my mother in law or any other relatives doing this.
Small market’s are what geek toys are for. My 2 cents.
Same here.
I may get one for that very reason. Use it daily to replace my iPad? Never.
There is a large Android modding community that builds generic and custom Android configurations for popular Android (and even non-Android) devices (phones and tablets). –> These people are called Troglodytes and live in their parents basements as 40 year old grown men
Not at all. Many of them are grown adults with fulltime jobs, homes and families. They just love pushing technology and devices with capabilities that are beyond the original design.
Really im thankful for this brigade of highly technical people who “think different”. They extend the life of devices, often bring more meaningful updates to devices than the manufacturer and a lot of their ideas end up in new products later down the road.
+1. Just look at Woz.
I also see no point in slamming Android mod makers. Not that anyone is going to run to mod the Amazon Android Kindle. It is being made on the cheap in order to run only low CPU requiring applications. I kinda sorta doubt it’s going to be worth playing Angry Birds on the thing, for example. It will most likely be like playing Flash crap on any iPad/iPhone wannabe: Slow as a one-legged dog.
Lack of 3G hardly seems a big deal. Many people are perfectly happy with a wi-fi IPad. And a camera is nice but not a necessity IMHO.
A little off subject, but I was in Best Buy yesterday for the first time in six months. They have revamped the store format. Apple store within a store is gone. Must have been 10 to 15 different tablets on a couple of adjacent tables. 2 iPads (black and white) on an end of shef display. Not set up well for testing.
I could not believe the number of different cell phones. Mind boggling. How would one choose. Again iPhones were on an end of shelf stand alone display.
What does this mean? The high numbers create a level of confusion and uncertainty among customers where they may be more easily influenced by the sales person. It also creates an inventory and logistics nightmare for Best Buy. How will they handle all the markdowns, returns and dead inventory.
Salespersons will likely push the company line. Not sure what that is. Plan to stop back in as a pretend confused buyer and see what they recommend. In the meantime I will continue to enjoy my iPad 2.
Verify Interested in finding out what you discover pridon. Please report back. 🙂
I don’t know which Best Buy you visited, but all of the ones I’ve been into still have Apple’s store-within-a-store concept going.
Same here.
I figured they might be gone since we got an apple store last year.. But they are still there.
The cell phone part he mentioned.. Yeah he’s right.
It’s made for reading books from Amazon.
duh-duh-DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Oh, what, that’s not the surprise?
I highly doubt it’ll exterminate the Nook. The whole point of the Nook is to be a reading-only device, and not to have a backlit display for easier longer reading, so Nook will be just fine the way it is.
I read the linked article yesterday. IIRC, it will be a single core processor. So its computational horsepower will differentiate it from the iPad.
Still, best not to be complacent. After all, none of Apple’s competitors were worried about the iPad at first, and look how that turned out.
Amazon’s taking a risk, and I’m not sure why. The Kindle is a very successful product as is. Why not just do another Kindle, incrementally improve the hardware and software, and make a built in frontlight so it can work in dark or low lit environments? The new Kindle seems to just throw away everything that made the Kindle so successful.
Amazon’s tablet … won’t have … 3G wireless networking capability
How will this work, exactly? It’s going to be called a “Kindle”. Today’s Kindles use 3G cellular networks exclusively, do they not? I know my Mom’s doesn’t require an internet connection to download stuff over the air, so that leaves cellular as the only way it could be done. But this new “Kindle” is going to be Wi-Fi only? That just doesn’t make sense.
——RM
I’d just like to know exactly who these nimrods are pushing some sight-unseen $300 Amazon tablet to be some iPad killer. Why push some tablet of likely inferior quality to somehow challenge the high-selling, high-quality iPad in consumer sales? Why choose a tablet that hardly anything is even known about to take the crown away from the iPad? It’s not as if Amazon is an industry leader for designing its own hardware and offering great customer support through brick and mortar stores.
There must be factions out there that just love to play the Devil’s Advocate. Just because some jackass analyst claims that Amazon can sell five million vaporware tablets to consumers in a few months, why should anyone of rational mind believe him or even want to believe him? When Apple first introduced the iPad, nearly no one believed Apple would sell more than one million units the entire year yet they’re so ready to believe Amazon can sell five million tablets online in a few months. Why is there such an unfair bias between Apple’s capabilities and Amazon’s?
Does Wall Street actually believe that present Kindle users even want a non-eInk reader? The current Kindle is perfect for users wanting a low-maintenance, uncomplicated reader with great battery life. Does Wall Street think that most Kindle users are going to upgrade or something? They’re really taking a great leap of faith based on nothing concrete. Does anyone even know precisely how many Kindles have been sold to consumers over the years? It’s not as if it is being used in schools or businesses.
I only know that if Wall Street continues to boost Amazon’s share price based on even mediocre Kindle tablet sales, I’m gonna get rather pissed off.
Why the TechTard journalists escalated the Amazon ‘tablet’ to iPad competing (let alone ‘killing’) proportions is incomprehensible. OF COURSE it is merely a response to the Barnes & Noble Nook. Blatant DUH Factor.
The clue? It’s price.
Got the clue now?
this is much better for AMZN than trying to compete in the Tablet market. I am glad they are sticking with something that speaks to their core business model. maybe they can get their P/E of 95 down to something more reasonable if this thing takes off. However, if it is not readable in the sun, like the first kindle, they will have lost any competitive advantage they had over iPad and this thing will be a big undifferentiated loser.
I know I am somewhat late to the party, but, it’s been two weeks now, and I’m loving my iPad2.
Just downloaded Pages, Keynote and Brushes. Even on a fixed income, the world is literally at your fingertips – and no mouse to push around!