[Rumor] Amazon Android Tablet Coming in Sept/Oct Hundreds Cheaper than iPad2

dgstorm

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Jan 5, 2011
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There is a new rumor about the Amazon Android tablet, or tablets as the case happens to be. Supposedly, according to a New York Post report, Amazon may be bringing not just one but two tablets to market sometime in September or October. Furthermore, these variants may come in a low-end and high-end variety, although Amazon's definition of "low-end" is anything but... The low-end device will most likely run NVIDIA's dual-core Tegra 2 chip. It will be codenamed "Coyote" and be "hundreds less" than the iPad2. The High-end tablet will be codenamed the "Hollywood", and may come with the NVIDIA quad-core chip known as "Kal-El." The tablets will both be running highly customized Android versions with deep Amazon integration like the Amazon Appstore, the Kindle eBook store, and more.

Source: Amazon-Tablets.com and DroidForums.net via BGR
 
I'm pretty pumped with Amazon entering the game. If their machines don't disappoint in the spec department they should become the leading seller of Android tablets, and a real competitor to the iPad. Pretty smart of Amazon to get their Android app store up and running for several months before their tablets appear. I wonder how long it will take for Apple to file suit.

Frank
 
It looks to me like Amazon's new tablets will sell like hot cakes!!! (really fast) I hope they have a good build quality and a great price!!!

Don
 
But they’re not. Rather than taking on Apple on their own court, they’re moving to keep a lock on a game they’re already kicking butt at (the e-reader market), while upping the odds that anyone weighing “iPad or Kindle?” will be swayed in their favor. By launching with a 7″ tablet (and only a 7″ tablet), Amazon is making it clear: they don’t want the Kindle tablet to be the iPad. They want it to be everything the iPad is not.
They want it to be small, and comfortable to read in bed. This is a Kindle, after all. For many folks who just want something to read in bed or throw into their bag to read on the train, the iPad’s nearly 10-inch display can feel a bit gigantic.
They want it to be cheap. Smaller displays are cheaper right up front, require less plastic for the body, and can get by with a lesser battery and a smaller backlight. More than a year after launch, the cheapest iPad you can buy new will set you back $499. According to the same source whose Kindle tablet we used, Amazon currently has it priced at half that: just $250. Even launching a 10-incher alongside would increase R&D costs, as well as lead consumers to believe that the 10″ model is the flagship (thereby throwing it up directly against the iPad and everything else.)
Meanwhile, they’re moving away from the direction that most other Android tablets have taken. This isn’t a be-all, do-all machine — it’s a new and improved Kindle, just as the name will imply. They’re aiming for simplicity, distilling the homescreen down to a Cover Flow-esque arrangement, making the entire experience all about your books, movies, and other media. And if you happen to want it to do other stuff? Sure, it can do that — they even have their very own App Store! But this isn’t an Android tablet. It’s a Kindle, and it just happens to run Android.
As for Samsung, LG, Motorola, and all the other tablet makers out there: unless they’re happy with whatever sliver of the minority chunk they’ve nabbed so far, they better take this as a shot right across the bow. For Android tablet manufacturers, the next big step will be figuring out how to ensure that the general consumer has any idea that their tablet exists — and here comes Amazon, swooping in with their cheap, small tablet and bringing the iconic, incredibly well-established Kindle brand (and their incredibly powerful distribution channel) with them. Genius.
 
I thought that Amzon (Kndle) is only for E-Book reading only?

It's screen size is only 7" and if someone's planning to use that for gaming and video watching purposes it may strain your eyes and maybe if for chatting use, possible but is't not enough (I don't know if there's a webcam on it).

What can you say?
 
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