Topic: Amazon

Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall

Summary: What's the big deal? Amazon has enough parts to make its tablet competitive with Apple's iPad. The key thread here is price. How cheap can Amazon tablets get?

By Larry Dignan for Between the Lines | June 22, 2011 -- 03:50 GMT (20:50 PDT)

Follow @ldignan

Amazon is reportedly planning to launch new tablets and the key item to watch will be price.

Android tablets from Amazon are one of the worst kept secrets in the industry. Meanwhile, Amazon has added a series of pieces---Cloud Drive, streaming video services and an Android app market---that play into the tablet strategy.

Digitimes is now reporting that component makers are prepping for an August to September launch of Amazon tablets, which will feature a Texas Instruments chip, Wintek touch screens and Quanta as the manufacturer.

What's the big deal? Amazon has enough parts to make its tablet competitive with Apple's iPad. The other key thread here is price. The problem with Android tablets---beyond trying to get movies and music on them in one place---is price. To effectively compete with Apple, rival tablets have to be cheaper.

Amazon can effectively subsidize the tablets, price them aggressively and make money on the backend via music, book and movie sales. In other words, Amazon's tablet can use the Kindle model quite effectively. It's not the device that matters here. It's the store.

The big unknown is how aggressively Amazon will price its tablet. The tech industry will be watching closely.

Topics: Amazon, Hardware, Laptops, Mobility, Tablets

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23 comments

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RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall

Nah, Amazon will lock people out just like the Nook color does and likely will not be a complete tablet in that sense.

slickjim
22 June, 2011 04:22

Reply Vote
- Amazon's tablet should be priced cheaper than iPad, since they can not ...
 
 @Peter Perry: ... offer similar quality: 1) A5 offers three-four times faster graphics than any other current SoC; 2) iPad is made of metal; 3) it has IPS screen, and screen's layers are glued together to fight parasitic refraction; 4) 90000 tablet applications against almost none.
 
 DDERSSS
 22 June, 2011 07:51
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
 
 @DeRSSS Keep beating that drum as you march down the hall to failure. Crapple has just been resorting to copying Android lately and stole the original idea in the first place. Oh, how innovative.
 
 timspublic1@...
 22 June, 2011 08:35
 
 Reply Vote
 - Which 'copying'? Apple's notifications is not a 'copy' at all, it is much
 
 @timspublic1: ... better. And the idea has nothing to do with Android at all. I have similar thing on my old Sony-Ericsson K790i from 2006: I see that notifications coming in the upper part of the screen, and then I can see whole list of what happened (calls, messages, etc).
 
 DDERSSS
 22 June, 2011 08:45
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
 
 @DeRSSS I think I am done with ZDNet. The insanity of the message boards from all sides is just too much for me. Apple, Google and Microsoft camps are all guilty of this. You guys are either getting paid to write on these boards or you seriously need another hobby. I can't understand how anybody can be that obsessed about a company that does not care about you one bit. Nobody from the company is sending flowers if you die. Have fun.
 
 StupidTechZealots-23432415690276115908309621553360
 22 June, 2011 20:43
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
 
 @StupidTechZealots [i]I can't understand how anybody can be that obsessed about a company that does not care about you one bit.[/i]
 
 The problem is, you fail to see the humor in it.
 
 Badgered
 23 June, 2011 06:25
 
 Reply Vote
RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall

Well - at least Amazon has an MP3 download service, but yeah; movies/music are currently an achilles heel for Android tabs & mobiles. On top of their own tablets, Amazon could work to open up its music download service to other tablet makers and then extend this to include to movies... that way, even if they can't pull off a cheap tablet, they would still be guaranteed to benefit from the eventual Android tablet 'winner'. Granted; easier said than done.

rikasa
22 June, 2011 04:43

Reply Vote
- RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
 
 @rikasa
 Amazon has all of that stuff.
 
 hoaxoner
 22 June, 2011 06:46
 
 Reply Vote
 - RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
 
 @hoaxoner but has it been presented to global tablet makers as a complete, integrated, cross platform alternative? We know they have many of the core elements to pull this off.
 
 rikasa
 22 June, 2011 08:08
 
 Reply Vote
RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall

There needs to be a solid marriage of hardware and content ecosystem if Amazon is to take on Apple. While content is key, it also takes solid must have hardware to drive consumers towards your device. This is why Apple's winning now, they have years of experience in the consumer electronics space with their iPods. They know all about how good hardware design drives consumers towards your devices. I think if anyone can challenge Apple it is Amazon, but they may need to put out the same effort and investment first.

dave95.
22 June, 2011 05:10

Reply Vote
- RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
  
  @dave95.
  Do some research on which app is selling he most books in iOS. Here's a hint. It is amazon. Something like 3 to 1.
  
  hoaxoner
  22 June, 2011 06:47
  
  Reply Vote
  - RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
    
    @hoaxoner
    
    What exactly is your point? If in fact Amazon books are selling more than iBooks now then Apple wins. Consumers don't have to give up their iPads for an Amazon device if they can download Amazon content on their iDevices. It's actually the only device where users get access to all 3 book stores (Amazon, B&N Nook, iBooks). Some may call this choice. Apple makes their money on the hardware, so why should they care if users use alternative services on their iPads?
    
    dave95.
    22 June, 2011 09:01
    
    Reply Vote
another nail in M$ coffin

and Apple's to be fair.

Linux Geek
22 June, 2011 06:20

Reply Vote
- RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
  
  nt
  
  rikasa
  22 June, 2011 08:29
  
  Reply Vote
- RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
  
  @Linux Geek [i]another nail in M$ coffin[/i]
  
  Ya know.. with all the "nails" in Microsoft's coffin, you'd think they'd be out of business by now. Huh... go figure.
  
  Badgered
  23 June, 2011 06:29
  
  Reply Vote
  - RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
    
    @Badgered
    Nah they just expanded into scrap metal recycling.
    
    But seriously Amazon doing a table well (and they do most things they do, well if not great) will be good competition for Apple, with all the infrastructure they have in place they wont pull down Apple but they will pull in the financially awhere and a lot of the fence sitters as well as the android fans.
    
    ru_black1971@...
    1 July, 2011 13:15
    
    Reply Vote
It's a young market, avoid entrenched positions ...

There's only one certainty in the tablet market at this moment, and that is that if Amazon get it right (quality, choices, price), then they will change the whole market.

Whether overpriced Android competitors learn from Amazon is by no means certain, but they might. Whether Amazon can deny M$ a viable place in the market is possible, how big the dent it makes in Apple cannot (yet) be predicted.

But Amazon - [i]and only Amazon, at this point[/i] - can change the market. And probably will.

Heenan73
22 June, 2011 10:43

Reply Vote
Amazon's current services are awesome. I hope they don't change.

Unlike all of the other software and content vendors out there, Amazon is the only one which allows users full control of their software, data, and overall experience at a low level of control and without worthless fluff. Whether I'm using EC2, S3, or CloudDrive, I'm in full control of how I store and use my data and software, and the format in which it's stored. I don't even need a PC anymore if I spin up an AMI and access it remotely via Remote Desktop.

If their tablet idea also gives users control without locking them into yet another irritating "store" for content and software, it's going to be a winner right out of the box.

Then, they'll just need to start offering the rest of the package: An Amazon cloud office suite, and a smart-phone.

Bit-Smacker
22 June, 2011 11:28

Reply Vote
- RE: Amazon tablets reportedly being prepped: Watch prices fall
  
  @Bit-Smacker
  Amazon has been doing a pretty good job with their cloud.
  For now use Amazon as you do, and Google Apps for the Cloud office Suite.
  
  Android Security http://www.2x.com/mobiledevicemanager
  
  virthddman
  22 June, 2011 15:02
  
  Reply Vote
"...Prices Fall"

They had better. ALL of these devices are overpriced. I still can't figure why a tablet should cost so much when a netbook can be had for under $300.00 Sure they are different devices but as far as the components that go into them there are a lot of similarities.

cornpie
22 June, 2011 11:28

Reply Vote