Remember that Android-based Kindle tablet Amazon’s been working on? According to reports citing an anonymous source, and when it launches, it’ll cost as little as $299.
The New York Post writes:
Amazon is poised to enter the tablet fray with an Android-powered tablet in late September or October, a source with knowledge of the plans said yesterday.
The device will sell for hundreds less than the entry-point $499 iPad, a feat few tablet makers have accomplished, the source said.
Honestly, this just reads like a regurgitation of earlier reports. In fact, we reported months ago that Amazon’s Kindle tablet would likely be released in September for a cheap price.
In fact, according to earlier rumors, Amazon won’t release just one tablet. Instead, they’ll release a 7-inch tablet powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, and a 1-inch version running the quad-core Tegra T30. It will also probably run Amazon’s own custom fork of Android, and only support Amazon’s own Appstore for Android.
Amazon’s going to punch hard when they release their first tablet: Amazon apparently intends on shipping 5 million tablets this year.
To be honest, if anyone can make a dent against Apple in the tablet market, it’s probably Amazon. I’ll be interested in seeing how well this first Kindle tablet does.
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.
36 responses to “Amazon Will Take On iPad With $299 Android Tablet To Launch In September [Report]”
Either the 1-inch tablet is meant to compete with the iPod Nano (not a great reading experience) or proofreading missed a 10-inch tablet.
It’ll be $99, like the HP Touchpad, by November.
Love the graphic. Also, I think you meant to write “10-inch tablet” not “1-inch tablet.”
I’m sure it’ll be craptacular.
1inch tablet? thats gonna be a bit cramped, if i say so myself
The experience of using Amazon on the web is kind of excruciating IMO and definitely kind of “anti-customer” so I expect the tablet to be more or less the same. Â I think it will probably sell though as it will basically be a colour Kindle with the ability to play games etc.Â
Amazon is just trying to be the next Google (i.e. – the next evil corporate empire to steal your personal info), except the bait on the hook here is retail instead of search. Â
There are so many things wrong with the Amazon tablet. 1) They should put the big chip in the bigger tablet. Seems like a waste in a 1″ tablet. 2) Did they merge with B&N. Interesting screen shot showing Amazon Payments and Amazon Programm [sic] while on the Barnes and Noble site. Hmmm…
I disagree. Amazon has the best chance of any company at taking market share from Apple on this one. Think of the Amazon base of buyers/users. The electronically delivered items they sale, Prime members movies, amazon music and Kindle books.
i don’t think that’s a screen shot
Google doesn’t steal your personal info; you give it to them. Also, Amazon is probably the best shopping site on the web now. I sometimes use it just for a price reference or to check reviews.
Amazon has two things going for its tablet that HP did not…
1) Millions of loyal Kindle users looking to upgrade to a color Kindle device but don’t want to spend $500 to do so.
2) As much media content, and more in some categories, as the iTunes store does. The only place they are lagging is in the Apps department but here they are ahead of both the Touchbook and the Playbook.
It shall be an interesting match up to watch. Other makers tried competing with the iPad based solely on hardware specifications without regard to the media consumption part of a tablet. They figured they could add that later if sales were good. Amazon has the media and they have the loyal customers. They just need to upgrade their hardware to fuel the eco-system. After almost 2 years, I think the iPad will finally have a competitor.
This will  be the first wildly successful non-Apple tablet. And it will succeed precisely because Amazon isn’t dumb enough to compete directly with Apple.Â
You don’t have to make a slate as powerful as iPad, all you need is a good slate that delivers smooth web browsing and media consumption and price it as 300 dollars or preferably even less. there’s a reason why nook colour, despite being severly crippled as a tablet, has already sold over 3 mln copies, which is propably more than all Samsung Tabs, Xooms, Touchpads, and Asus tablets sold combined.mark my words…the first hugely successful non-Apple tablet on the market will be the next Kindle, precisely because Amazon will propably aim at very low price. Their tablets will sell like crazy because they will  deliver high quality user experience (alough much weaker than iPad) and be very cheap.The reason why android tablets fail is because they’re priced the same as iPad. Why would anyone buy Android tablet when iPad costs the same? And the only low-price android tablets are garbage. Before iPad’s launch there was a lot of pro-Apple predictions and all of them came true aside from one: that it will kill Kindle. In reality Kindle is now doing a lot better than it did before iPad launch, precisely because Amazon didn’t do what people said they should: abandon e-ink and do ipad clone. The rumors say the new e-ink Kindle will cost below 100$ and I doubt their android tablets will be more than 300$, propably they will even offer much cheaper option too.
They also have IMDB.com…
Everyone says that the Amazon tablet will be killer because of their ability to stream media. And it will be if that is the case. But who says that Amazon holds the rights to do that?
http://spreadingsantorum.com/
Thats a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 inch, that they slapped Amazon stuff on.
The 1-inch version better have a retina display!
The 1-inch version better have a retina display!
Now, THAT DOES look like a “big iPod Touch” !!!
adding the Amazon App and Media Stores to something very much like the basic $250 Nook Color and selling it for $300 sounds like a winner. but –
will the Amazon flavor of Android have a good UI? it can’t be anything like their very complex website. Amazon has never designed a full-scale OS UI before, and it ain’t easy.
will it be able to full integrate with the Google cloud apps/services? that is the strongpoint of all Android devices.
is there very much of a market for anyone’s 7″ tweener tablets?
is the less-adaptable widescreen format a basic mistake for all Android tablets?
what about patent issues? how will Amazon escape them?
so i think this might be an Asus/Acer-killer. but that’s all.
4 days later and he still hasn’t fixed the 1-inch typo.