Amazon’s Tablet Will Cost $229 and Won’t Officially Support Android Market
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That’s my prediction. What’s yours? Every single week there are more unsubstantiated Amazon tablet rumors, so why not add some good old-fashioned speculation to the mix?
If Amazon is indeed going to release an Android tablet in the next month or so, I believe that it will most certainly undercut the price of the Nook Color, which currently sits at a competitive $249 new and $199 refurbished. Amazon always likes pricing their Kindles just below B&N’s prices on the Nook, and I think Amazon’s first tablet will be somewhat akin to a beefed-up Nook Color.
If the rumors are to be believed, Amazon looks like they will be releasing a 9″ tablet first, and then a premium tablet later, perhaps next year. The 9″ tablet is said to be minus a camera, so that’s a very good indication that it will be a trimmed down, cost-effective tablet. Heck, even the new $169 Pandigital Nova has front and rear facing cameras.
Other than the missing camera, I suspect the Amazon tablet will feature some pretty decent specs, like a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, multi-touch capacitive screen, speakers, mini HDMI port (got to have audio and video covered with Amazon’s MP3 and video services), SD card slot, and plenty of other goodies to make people forget about the Nook Color. I also think Amazon will do a lot of promoting for color Kindle content, and perhaps even offer some exclusive new Kindle-related feature for the tablet.
But I don’t think the Amazon tablet will come with official Android Market access. First off, if it doesn’t have a camera, that’s a problem. Secondly, Amazon has their own Android Appstore, and if their only other venture into hardware production (the Kindle) is any indication, Amazon isn’t going to be very likely to allow their competitors onto their tablet to sell the same apps they have and more.
So in the end, people are going to be disappointed about the lack of official Android Market access and cameras, but the overall specs will be good enough and the price of the tablet is going to come in so low that it will be insanely popular nonetheless, and there will most certainly be hacks to get the Android Market onto the device anyway.
That’s how I think the Amazon tablet is going to go down. And I think it is going to be announced later this month and will start shipping in September, along with a new Kindle or two. What do you think?
Hmmm. I have no idea. I am still waiting on the Samsung Galaxy S Wifi 5″ or something like it(Dell Streak 5?), and won’t be indulging myself in any other Android LCD tablet unless they are priced under $200.
Your predictions seem right on to me, but I don’t see it as winning anyone over that isn’t already a Kindle fan. It will be a fanboy success and a middle of the road tablet to dissenters. Personally I am giving up on the tablet market until I get a good touch/active digitizer (prefer wacom) in the 7-10 inch market.
If it’s a 9incher at anything like NookColor pricing, $229-279, it won’t need a camera to sell.
As for Google’s market, the decision won’t be Amazon’s to make, but Google’s. And the likelihood is Google will deny their “blessing”, thereby making Amazon very happy. 🙂
I know you are merely speculating, but I’ll ask anyway: do you think the “SD card slot” will accommodate a full-size SD card (such as I use in a digital camera), or just one of those teeny-tiny cards (such as I have in my smartphone)…?
I want a tablet that can accept the full-size SD card from my camera!
(Yes, I know the Toshiba Thrive has such a card slot…but I’m hoping to find that capability on a much less expensive tablet/e-reader.)
Thanks!
That’s hard to say, but here lately most seem to be using the smaller sd card slots. One thing you can do is get a microSD card and use an adapter for your camera, a lot of them come with adapters now that makes them work with the bigger slots.
I love how most of nathans articles are sensationist for the titles and then when you read the articles they are just baseless speculation. You need to learn how to do research on things you talk about.
You can’t research something that doesn’t yet exist. Every article everywhere about the Amazon tablet is speculation at this point.