Details leak about Amazon Kindle Tablet

The Amazon tablet is the worst kept secret in tech, and today MG Siegler has played with it. The Kindle Tablet according to MG is a 7-inch tablet that runs a hybrid Android designed to make Amazon's device, well, Amazon's. There are no Google apps (including the Android Market) on the Kindle Tablet. The entire premise behind the new tablet according to MG is to sell you more Amazon stuff.

Readers of this blog will find this information familiar, as I called this months ago. MG has filled in some solid information, although understandably no photos. Let's see how the new information compares with my earlier conjectures.

JK: I don’t see Amazon’s tablet as a product going after the Android tablet market at all. I believe it would be intended to extend the company’s retail operation into the next logical space.

MG: Amazon’s content store is always just one click away. The book reader is a Kindle app (which looks similar to how it does on Android and iOS now). The music player is Amazon’s Cloud Player. The movie player is Amazon’s Instant Video player. The app store is Amazon’s Android Appstore.

JK: It will be a full Android tablet, don’t misunderstand me, but its primary purpose will be to sell you Amazon products, and then provide a nice mobile method to consume those products. A Kindle on steroids, if you will.

MG: So why will people buy this device instead of a Nook Color? Well, beyond the deep Amazon services integration, there will be two other reasons, I believe. First, Amazon is going to promote the hell out of this thing on Amazon.com. Second, the plan right now is to give buyers a free subscription to Amazon Prime.

JK: I envision constant promotions aimed at Amazon tablet owners. Free shipping for any product bought from the tablet or big discounts for similar purchases. Amazon is a master at playing the retail game, and this will fit perfectly into that. Amazon doesn’t want to sell you a tablet, they want the tablet to sell you lots of other stuff.

MG: The [Amazon Prime] service, which Amazon currently sells for $79 a year, gives users access things like free unlimited two-day shipping, and no minimum purchases for free shipping. More importantly for this product, Prime users get access to Amazon’s Instant Video service. There will be more Kindle-related perks, I imagine.

MG has a lot of specific information about the hardware of the Kindle Tablet, and mentions that Amazon will be pricing it at $250. Head over and check out all of the information MG's sharing and see what you think. One thing that seems likely is while the Kindle Tablet will compete price-wise with the Nook Color, Amazon is not likely going to let techies mess around with installing regular Android on it. Not with free Prime accounts and product discounts on the line. Will you buy a Kindle Tablet for $250?