“It’s called simply the ‘Amazon Kindle,'” MG Siegler reports for TechCrunch. “Fist [sic] of all, before every commenter asks, no, sadly, I don’t have any pictures to share. That was the one condition of me getting this information. So instead you’ll have to rely on my prose to draw a picture of the device in your head. Or you can just look at a BlackBerry PlayBook — because it looks very similar in terms of form-factor.”
“The device is a 7-inch tablet with a capacitive touch screen. It is multi-touch, but from what I saw, I believe the reports that it relies on a two-finger multi-touch (instead of 10-finger, like the iPad uses) are accurate. This will be the first Kindle with a full-color screen. And yes, it is back-lit. There is no e-ink to be found anywhere on this device,” Siegler reports. “Earlier this week, reports suggested that a 7-inch Amazon tablet could be released in October, with a larger, 10-inch version to follow next year. That’s somewhat accurate. As of right now, Amazon’s only definitive plan is to release this 7-inch Kindle tablet and they’re targeting the end of November to do that.”
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“So how much will the 7-inch Kindle cost? $250,” Siegler reports. “I believe it is running on a single-core chip (though I’m not 100 percent sure)… I also believe the device only has 6 GB of internal storage. The idea is that this will be more of a ‘cloud device’ for things like music and movies… This initial version of the device will be WiFi-only. Amazon is supposedly working with carriers to possibly product [sic] 3G-enabled versions (as they have with their other Kindles), but that won’t be the case at launch… There is no camera… 10 hours or so [battery life].”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A 7-inch screen is only 45% of iPad’s screen. Smart shoppers will get iPads and all that they offer (massive app selection, vibrant third-party ecosystem, bigger and better screen, full Multi-Touch™, etc.) and just download the Kindle app if that’s one of the many things they want to do with their iPad.
Fist of all, call your proofreader.
Now that’s irony! You need to proofread your comment. 🙂
Whoosh!
I know, right over top… >.<
Werks every thyme, doesn’t hit, Chrissy? Good one!
She did that on purpose, Einstein. Try to keep up with the grown-ups.
As is the case more and more these days. I might not be the best at properly writing/typing out my thoughts into grammatically correct english but I’m not trying to do it professionally. Note to the internet. If you blog/write, proof read at least 3 times, slowly.
C1
Yes
“working with carriers to possibly product 3G-enabled versions”
I’ve been hard at work producting, too.
Yup, the HVAC business is like that…
“Amazon’s Android tablet really only a 7-inch color Kindle”
“… a BlackBerry PlayBook — because it looks very similar in terms of form-factor.”
The headline and content seem to be at odds.
I was in B&N recently and decided to try out a 7″ Nook Color out of curiosity. Opened a “Winnie the Pooh” book and the font was soooooo small as to be unreadable. But fear not! If you press and hold on a passage, a window opens up with the type slightly larger.
At that moment, I envisioned small children crying their way through bedtime stories all over the land.
This sounds like it will be a tech-dud but I am sure it will sell well to the people who only look at price (can you say HP TouchPad?).
I really think Apple should have a smaller iPad like device. I have the original iPad and LOVE it but really wish it was a little smaller. Apple says they will not make a smaller iPad but what about a slightly larger iPod Touch. They are going to have to counter these smaller tablets that are coming out.
No doubt. Wish I had gotten a $99 TouchPad that will need an android hack in 6 months just to remain useful for more than web browsing and email.
But this should come as no surprise, it’s not like Wal-Mart rose to the top because of the high quality of the merchandise. People know that you get what you pay for and still they buy the cheapest one the can. Well, not all of us, ha ha.
I don’t know why so many people are so convinced that WebOS is going to die. I know that HP haven’t proved themselves to be too reliable but I would imagine if they were going to drop WebOS they would have announced it at the same time as they announced they were stopping manufacture of the WebOS hardware.
Given that they are a company planning to invest all their efforts in software and have stated that they want to maximise the value of WebOS surely it is not a huge gamble to buy a powerful tablet at less than half what this feeble new Kindle tablet will cost.
And the fact that it was a powerful tablet with a good OS that has HP have decided they want to continue working with surely also means that people that bought it did not base their decision ONLY on price. Certainly it was a price that was hard to refuse but given the other strengths of the platform it was a price that was far less than the value.
So perhaps the purchasers bought it because they thought only of value. I am not so sure purchasers who think of value will be swayed to a $250 underpowered 7″ Android tablet with a locked in system.
Jobs comment about a seven inch screen, was not his most intelligent one ….. I mean what about the iTouch and the iPhone – Only stands to reason a screen between the ipad and iphone maybe welcome with open arms …
Well, perhaps you should read his comment in its full context before deciding whether it’s intelligent or not.
Steve knows we already have a small screen like the iPhone or iPod, his point was why would you carry a 2nd small screen, that’s too big to put in your pocket? A 10″ screen is a no-compromise size.
I remember comments from Jobs regarding having to file one’s fingertip down to be able to use a tablet smaller than the iPad. Doesn’t sound anything like he’s worried about a second small screen, only that anything smaller would be unusable without enduring bodily mutilation.
so basically they are looking to compete with the nook.
interesting
Duhhhhh 😉 read the fist paragraph of the article.
Maybe the Apple boys might have something new up their sleeves so the device-size can be adjusted by pulling the corners in with your fingers. Like pinch-to-zoom. Except the actual frame changes in shape, so you can have a 4 inch, 5 inch or 6 inch device, whichever is handiest at the time. Double-click to revert to 7″ size. Naturally, this will require alien technology, or another 12,000 years of advances to the iPad2.. I think I’ll pour myself another gin…
Great concept Alex. Maybe stretchable materials will exist in only 50 years or less…
Hardware? How quaint. I really doubt we’ll be carrying around devices that long.
Hi ChrissyOne
Even if our devices are implanted under the skin or into our bones it’s another way of carrying them.
Well if it’s implanted in the back or your eye there will hardly be a stretchable screen to worry about, will there? The interface will simply appear in front of you.
Right. And this will give rise to new conventions: i.e. you don’t walk through someone else’s display.
C1:
“if it’s implanted in the back or your eye”
Why would one implant it in ones back and expect to see it in front of one? ; )
Uh Giles, we already have stretchable materials. Here is a sample displayed by ChrissyOne:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=spandex+pants&view=detail&id=040489BA185FC08BDD759D8E9341AD0223F31EF5&first=60&qpvt=spandex+pants&FORM=IDFRIR
Of course. I meant stretchable displays, etc.
This will be an Android tablet killer, Amazon will be aiming to knock these out at little to no profit because it hopes to make profit from sales of media and goods (comes with prime). It will fork Android take over the low end sales whilst Apple will continue to dominate the high end of the tablets.
It will be interesting how the fandroids will react to this new walled garden?
What a hype machine this has been. The press is so eager to have something to write about. First they tout Android, which isn’t a platform at all, but is a fragmented underpinning of every Tom, Dick and Harry tech company throwing crap hardware against the wall to see what sticks. None of them are intra-operable. Android gives other people’s IP away and the hidden cost of doing business is dealt with by whining about patent wars by Google and it’s hardware victims. Apple sues the victims and the cost of Android increases. Android gets to brag that its market share rises in the phone realm because every crappy and cheap give it away piece of profitless hardware “sells” to people who do not want to or cannot afford an iPhone. This model hasn’t caught on with tablets because of price and features that are lacking and no need for a phone plan. Now Amazon will release an Android powered device cheap seats device, never give out sales figures, declare it #1 seller at the Amazon store (talk about a walled garden) and tout its anemic feature set as its best feature. The press will start speculating about the never supplied sales figures and they will become as reality, with no ability to fact check, because Amazon doesn’t publish them. Suddenly Android will will be gaining on iPad with phony numbers of useless products and the press will have yet another horse race that doesn’t exist. “Android, like Microsoft before it has stolen market share from Apple.” There will be no mention of profit share and the race to the bottom will be compared to the most phenomenal financial success in the history of tech. Eventually Android derivative devices will deliver a hardware and software package that successfully compares the the first generation iPad and Apple will have leap frogged this technology to something else. Just when they figure it out, the next big thing will be released and the “visionaries” at Samsung will turn to Google Chrome for another non-answer that the press can use to jerk each other off.
Nailed it! My thoughts exactly.
How many years has it even been since you could go to Amazon’s site and NOT have plugs for the Kindle be the first thing your eyes fall on?? Pretty relentless hype for a product they won’t release numbers on.
Doubtless the new “tablets” will get the same lavish treatment: talk about vaporsales!
Oh, a Color Nook-killer!
Press flogging these so called ‘iPad Killers’ reminds me when Mike Tyson was young. The press to spin interest kept flogging ‘Tyson killers’ and made the most bizarre claims on the merits of the (hopelessly outclassed) challengers. Invariably Tyson would knock them out without breaking a sweat in a round or two.
James Buster Douglas
yep, I knew some one will bring up Douglas
when Tyson after whacking his opponents silly got complacent and lost (still look at his win record vs losses when he was at his peak)
But Steve jobs is more than aware of complacency. I think that’s why Steve Jobs used to give those ‘android wants to kill us” speeches even though iPhone is taking 66% of the world’s phone profits of the 8 largest manufacturers (i.e TWICE all the Androids, blackberries, Nokias, Badas etc put together).
Apple is knocking them down like the young Tyson was 90% of the time but Apple hardly complacent, in fact critics call apple ‘paranoid’ about competition (but as Andy Grove said ‘only the paranoid survive).
The thing about Tyson is that he was a sh*tty boxer. He won all those fights because he had a devastating punch that could knock anyone into the middle of next week, but once his opponents learned how to avoid it, and Tyson actually had to start boxing, it all fell apart.
That’s where Apple is better than Tyson. They have the knockout punch (killer products), but they also know how to box, dancing around their opponents (smart release schedules), playing smart defense (patent lawsuits), and manuvering them into a corner (buying up all the components).
——RM
Ali Boumayé!
I agree with some of what you said but Tyson was a much better boxer than people make him out to be but he was so bloody strong he didn’t really need to exercise his skill to the full.
(I’m no big boxing expert but I’ve read some on him including his bio and stuff about his foster dad trainer),
(just checking I believe he won 19 of his first pro fights, 12 by knockout: you can’t do that without knowing how to box)
coxscorner:
“Because he scored some crushing one-punch knockouts some observers tend to think of Tyson as strictly a limited power puncher. However, in his youthful prime, he was much more than just a devastating hitter. Hank Kaplan, speaking of the young Tyson, wrote in Boxing Digest, “He has the best defense seen in the heavyweight division in many years.” Tyson had excellent fundamentals, he showed good balance, exceptional head movement, kept his hands high, ducked and bent at the waist to remain in punching position and he slipped, blocked and countered punches very well. Tony Tucker and Bonecrusher Smith each managed to land only one significant punch in their entire fights against Tyson. Iron Mike also was a fine combination puncher in his youth, an important skill that the later versions of Tyson abandoned possibly due to a lack of good work ethics. Famous trainer Angelo Dundee said after his fight with Trevor Berbick, “Tyson throws combinations I never saw before. When have you seen a guy throw a right hand to the kidney, come up the middle with an uppercut, then throw a left hook. He throws punches . . . like a trigger.”
(Angelo dundee was of course Muhammad Ali’s trainer and also worked with Sugar Ray Leonard so I guess he should know… )
His deterioration was when he went with King’s bunch and ended up in jail etc in his prime. After jail it was downhill.
I can see the front page of Amazon site already with that bogus #1 Best Seller Kindle graphic. It will stay there for years and years.
Amazon Kindle tablet– single core, no camera, no mail app, upto 2 finger gestures, no social apps.
iPad has plenty of amazon apps and Safari.
Amazon Kindle tablet is cheap thick plastic device. Fail!