Amazon is preparing a tablet of their own to compete with the iPad, and no lesser a higher-up than CEO Jeff Bezos has all but confirmed it.
In an interview with Consumer Reports, Bezos said to “stay tuned” for forthcoming news about am Amazon-branded “multipurpose tablet device.”
Ever since Amazon launched their own Appstore for Android devices, previous rumors that suggested that Amazon would respond to the challenge of the iPad with a tablet of their own have seemed like a certainty.
But Bezos’ statement seems to confirm it: a Kindlepad is coming. It’ll almost definitely run Android, and if Amazon’s history is anything to go by, it’ll aim to undercut the iPad in price.
Amazon has been increasingly positioning itself as a direct competitor to Apple… and recent moves (such as obligatory 30% cuts of all in-app purchases) make it seem like Cupertino is taking that threat seriously.
What do you think? Can an affordably priced Kindlepad challenge the iPad’s dominance? Sound off in the comments.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
