“Amazon is poised to enter the tablet fray with an Android-powered tablet in late September or October, a source with knowledge of the plans said yesterday,” Garett Sloane reports for The New York Post.
“The device will sell for hundreds less than the entry-point $499 iPad, a feat few tablet makers have accomplished, the source said,” Sloane reports. “Amazon is considered one of the few credible threats to Apple and has been willing to sell its electronics at a loss in hopes of generating more digital media purchases.”
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Sloane reports, “ITG Investment Research said that tablets running Google’s Android are starting to chip away at Apple’s iPad marketshare, and price will be key to further erosion. ‘We expect to see more and more lower-end, more-affordable Android devices enter the marketplace, which should further allow Android to increase its share,’ said Tony Berkman, CEO of ITG.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If this is true, we can’t wait to see that piece of plastic AppLack™ in all of its $299-at-most glory. Screen size? Screen type? Screen resolution? Battery life? Camera(s)? Lots of details to find out. Watch those Apple patents now, Jeffie, or you’ll be spending more on lawyers than you will on subsidizing your little “iPad killer.”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
With the Kindle, Amazon has gained valuable experience and a proven track record designing electronics in the tablet form factor, that are light, affordable, low powered, and relatively well designed. Amazon is in the strongest position of anyone I can think of to compete with the iPad.
Despite having a good position, I think an Amazon tablet in its first iteration is unlikely to compete well against the iPad, given how polished and affordable the iPad is. Competition is a good, so I hope Amazon’s tablets are good enough to spur Apple into making the iPad even better.
And cut the legs off the Kindle if they’re not careful…
Any retard who wants to imagine that Amazon is offering them an “iPad equivalent” for half the priceis free to buy one. This is exactly the market that Amazon’s tablet will appeal to. Kindle or no Kindle, Amazon knows exactly nothing about building a cutting-edge mobile device like the iPad.
It will have a reader app and will hence be known as a Kindle killer.
Let’s give it a name. We’ll call it the Bungle. It might be as good as an original iPad and will be the equivalent of skating where the
puck WAS!
The Kindle DX is already priced at $379. It does have wifi and 3G but it doesn’t have color and, considering it only processes “16 shades of gray” (what is that, 4-bit?), its computing power is probably rather puny.
“Sloane reports, “ITG Investment Research said that tablets running Google’s Android are starting to chip away at Apple’s iPad marketshare, and price will be key to further erosion”
Yes, anyone who’s been on a plane, subway, bus, etc in the last year has noticed all the Android tablets out there, oh..no?
The problem is two fold.
1-Components
2-Ecosystem
On both, Apple has the market by the balls.
I can’t understand the competitive obsession with an ‘iPad-killer’ product. The competition is focussed on Apple and not the consumer. Apple succeeds because of their laser focus on delivering the best solution to consumer desires. Applee keeps raising the bar but instead of responding in kind, with equally imaginative, innovative products competitors simply try to attack Apple’s success. It is VALUE to the user that should be the focus. I’m sure there is a market for the Kindle – it’s perfect for the kids at the beach when you don’t want to risk your iPad in the sand. As mentioned, the Kindle is not an alternative to the iPad and Amazon is nuts to price it ‘against’ the iPad. Amazon should make a good quality Kindle, price it appropriately and accept the niche market that results from satisfied customers who CHOOSE it.
“The competition is focussed on Apple and not the consumer. ”
The competition has never been focused on the consumer. If they were, they wouldn’t keep pumping out the same old tired products year after year. The only reason they’re trying to step up their game now is that Apple makes them look bad.
They should change the headline to read “Amazon poised to debut Android-Soiled tablet……..”