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Topic: Hardware

Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

Summary: Amazon has reportedly placed orders with contract equipment manufacturers for tablets.

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

Amazon has reportedly placed orders with contract equipment manufacturers for tablets.

According to DigiTimes, Quanta Computer has received orders for a tablet device with peak orders expected to hit 700,000 to 800,000 a month.

It has been long rumored---and increasingly clear---that Amazon is going to launch a tablet to challenge Apple's iPad. The device is likely to run Google's Android operating system optimized for tablets. The parts have been cobbled together for months. To wit:

Put it all together and Amazon has the tools to deliver content to tablets---something other device makers such as Samsung, Research in Motion and others haven't been able to pull off.

Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps has argued that Amazon is one of the few companies that can give Apple a run. Meanwhile, Jason Perlow began arguing that Amazon will make a tablet splash last year.

Related coverage on ZDNet:

Topics: Hardware, Amazon, Laptops, Mobility, Tablets

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37 comments
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  • amazon...

    ... is a retailer. it ships boxes to customers. that's their business. who in his right mind would really believe that they will be able to compete with apple on tablets after, microsoft, samsung, motorola, research in motion and many other hardware makers have failed? the desperation of the apple hating blogosphere is at new highs. now a retailer has to serve as competition for apple. puleeeze.<br><br>i have to give them credit though, they are really good at playing the analysts and tech pundits. a lot of them really think that amazon is a tech company with amazing, astronomical profits ahead (thus they give it a P/E of almost 90), even after their quarterly profits fell 30%. that kind of gigantic smokescreen, i have to say, not bad, one has to pull that off. though i guess everyone in the media is so desperate for an "ipad killer", they take what they can get.<br><br>after the kindle schwindel now the amazon "ipad killer". you gotta be kidding.
    banned from zdnet
    Reply Vote

    • ...is more than a retailer

      @banned from zdnet <br>Like it or not, Kindle has made a huge impact just like the iPad, just in a different way. There are people who will just not use an iPad, like my stepmother, but will use a Kindle because she is a heavy consumer of books and prefers the look and feel better (she uses a Touch for work).<br><br>But I don't think it is Apple that has to worry, as much as HP and their TouchPad. Apple will always have the fetish and mass-market appeal, which they can quite often turn on at will. HP is rolling out the same sort of services as mentioned in this article, but Amazon has a better presence in the retail space. Amazon is a tech company (cloud, Kindle, etc.) and has an army of developers and engineers to prove it.<br><br>By the way, does the iPad have a ShIfT LoCk key? <img border="0" src="http://www.cnet.com/i/mb/emoticons/happy.gif" alt="happy">
      matricellc
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

      @banned from zdnet [i]it ships boxes to customers. that's their business.[/i]

      They also already sell the Kindle device. It's not my cup of tea, but I hear it's a decent device for reading.

      Why is this so strange to you? Amazon wants to expand their offerings. Surely that doesn't worry the faithful.

      [i]now a retailer has to serve as competition for apple.[/i]
      Competition can come in many different shapes and sizes.
      Badgered
      Reply Vote

    • as i said, a smokescreen

      @matricellc and Badgered
      amazon makes the majority of its sales from the same good old electronics, books and dvds like a decade ago. just more of it. and some provisions for third parties selling their wares via amazon.com.

      the revenues from their tech offerings (cloud and kindle) are so tiny they don't even mention them in their quarterly reports or refuse to give a number as with the never ending kindle schwindel.

      they now invest in new fulfillment centers (their retail business) and some obscure new cloud offerings, a business - as i said - they don't really like to talk about. it is really fascinating how the tech press pundits and analysts all fall for this ongoing charade.
      banned from zdnet
      Reply Vote

    • You forget how many Kindles Amazon has sold. They have shown that they are

      very capable of building and selling hardware. And Amazon can sell at cost or below, making money on content and advertising. They have all of the pieces.
      DonnieBoy
      Reply Vote

      • and how many have they sold?

        @DonnieBoy <br>unfortunately amazon doesn't talk about their kindle sales. and how do you know amazon has ever made any money off of kindle or ebook sales? not to my surprise amazon refuses to give any hard numbers about it. no revenue numbers for the kindle and ebook business, let alone margins or profits.
        banned from zdnet
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

        @DonnieBoy
        Stop wasting keystrokes on @banned...he or she does not know what he or she is talking about.
        matricellc
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

      @banned from zdnet
      amazon is not just a retailer. They are one of the biggest cloud computing companies and web service companies. AWS or amazon web services.
      rocketboy5114
      Reply Vote

      • no, they aren't a cloud company

        @rocketboy5114
        they don't have a substantial cloud business (as no one has so far) and they refuse to give any numbers for it. all they have is "plans" and ambitions and a lot of expensive investments and obviously a lot of goodwill from the tech press. but no business to speak of.
        banned from zdnet
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

        @banned from zdnet<br>I think you're forgetting something here. Amazon does not have to sell a manufactured device. They could just sell a branded device made by Samsung or HTC and use its extraordinary power in distribution. Just a thought.
        hoaxoner
        Reply Vote

    • banned from zdnet: Amazon does not have to make ONE PENNY off of Kindle or

      Android tablets. They keep people buying Amazon books, content, music, apps, viewing Amazon adds, etc, etc. Don?t look for Amazon to try to make any money off of an Android tablet.
      DonnieBoy
      Reply Vote

    • Google is one that should be afraid.

      @banned from zdnet

      Amazon is doing an interesting power-play using Android as a weapon against BOTH Google and Apple. Amazon has all the part of the puzzle Google is missing.

      Failing #1 on Android is getting media on and off the device. Drag and drop. File system mounting. SD Card Busy errors. Android is a cluster $%#% when it comes time to actually keep media synced on the device. Drag and Drop is so last century that <b>only</b> techies think it is acceptable and a plus. Like CLI VS GUI. The CLI is good for some things and I do use it. But techies are the exception.

      Amazon has all the pieces of the puzzle. It will have a custom build (a branch) that will link directly to their own applications storefront and the Android Market place will be a side load with warnings letting people know you are going to the malware infested wild west.

      Books? Check.
      Movies? Check.
      Music? Check.
      Applications? Check.
      Search? Check. Targets the Amazon store first.
      Commerce? Check.
      Email? Not yet but count on it.

      Amazon is about to do a power-play and rip control of Android from Google. Google will loose product search revenue and Amazon will gain a mobile ad platform targeting their commerce sites without having to go through Google and paying CPM rates to Google.
      Bruizer
      Reply Vote

    • Amazon has sufficient resources to do this, and it's cool

      @banned from zdnet is way off.

      Amazon has significant scale in a number of markets and they have shown competence in growing these new markets (retail, Kindle, cloud hosting). If their approach to a tablet is extreme mass market - millions of inexpensive devices, mutifunction sales and consumption of content - they can pull it off. As a consumer, they have earned my loyalty. I'll buy the devices, but I have a feeling they will be able to practically give them away.
      Schoolboy Bob
      Reply Vote

      • Give them away?

        @Schoolboy Bob

        Not a chance. They could never sale enough content to begin to make any returns.
        Bruizer
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

        @Bruizer They already are "giving away" their streaming video with their Amazon Prime $79/yr subscription which used to just get you free shipping. Just like cell phone carriers subsidize phones, it's certainly possible for Amazon to give away a tablet with an Amazon Prime subscription as well. That way the consumer has no reason to look outside Amazon for paper or ebooks, movies, music, tv shows, apps, etc.
        jgm@...
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

      @banned from zdnet <br><br>I will have to agree that Amazon have about the best chance of competing head on with Apple. I don't think they will be able to displace their lead or anything, just offer up what others are unable to, to truly compete. When we look at what other competitors are offering against Apple, it pales in comparison to Amazon's potential offerings, especially when it comes to content. Think they're second (though far second) in online music sales. They have VOD and streaming services. They own Audible.com (Audiobooks). They just launched their own curated App Store that's getting praised for its curation (no wild wild west). They already have the credit card accounts, and the easy 1-click patent that Apple users always enjoyed. They have technology like Whispersync which I would expect them to implement in their tablets for seamless syncing of content between devices. They have what it takes to compete. <br><br>Now lets see how well they do, they can still screw it up by offering ugly hardware and buggy software. Horrible marketing (ask Palm). They will need to rely on Google getting Honeycomb stable and releasing the code.
      dave95.
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

      @banned from zdnet
      You are forgetting that Amazon, as does Apple, has a very loyal customer base. I order just about everything from them--electronics, small applicances, trash bags, instant coffee--everything except books! (I pretty much buy only used books. New books I get from the library. eBooks I download from munseys.com.)
      datrappert
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

      Michael Dell started competing with IMB as a college student selling PC clones out of the trunk of his car. With their resources, Amazon could compete with anyone they set their minds to.
      nfordtchrpub
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Amazon tablet coming into focus: Quanta reportedly lands orders

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      tringo007
      Reply Vote

  • Amazon is one that could really put a dent in Apple. They can ship at cost

    or even below, and make money off of content, advertising. Android allows all of this. Heck, Google should even step in and give a subsidy if all of the Google apps are placed front and center, as well as Google search.
    DonnieBoy
    Reply Vote
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