Amazon tablets may cost $349 and $449, forced to go LCD only
updated 12:05 pm EDT, Mon May 23, 2011
Amazon tablets get prices, history in leak
Further insight may have surfaced for Amazon's Coyote and Hollywood tablets with Taiwanese sources claiming Monday to know more about pricing and Amazon's original goals. The seven-inch Coyote is now targeted to cost $349 and could be one of the least expensive dual-core Tegra 2 tablets. The quad-core Tegra 3-based, 10-inch Hollywood would cost $449, PCMag said, hinting that the move to quad-core wouldn't carry any price premium.
The company is expected to use all-LCD technology, likely color-rich IPS panels similar to those on the iPad or Nook Color. Amazon had reportedly aimed at first for a screen like Pixel Qi's 3qi that could flip between an E Ink-like grayscale display and an LCD, but the exact technique wasn't expected to be ready until 2012 or even 2013. The decision may create a moment of irony for Amazon, which has actively attacked the iPad's readability in Kindle ads but would have to face the same problem just months later.
Leaks have had at least one of the tablets co-designed by Samsung and made by Quanta for a second-half 2011 shipping window.
The pricing could give Amazon a distinct competitive advantage by the time it ships. Combined with its name recognition and connection to reading, it also has a chance at usurping other Android tablet manufacturers for the top spot as well as putting pressure on a largely unchallenged Apple iPad. While Google has been rumored collaborating on the tablet, Amazon is expected to have a custom interface and focus heavily on the Amazon Appstore, the Kindle Store, and other portals that cut Google out of the loop altogether.
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Amazon, industry, gadgets, Google, Android, NVIDIA, Samsung, Quanta, Kindle, Tegra, Apple, iPad, Kal-El
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Amazon pad will be clear #2 behind iPad
Only Amazon has a chance to make any dent in iPad market share. Amazon already has years of Kindle hardware design experience, they have plenty of retail experience, plus hundreds of millions of account-holders' credit card numbers. None of which Google has.
Amazon also understands customer support, something that Google is still clueless at. Google managed to create a huge wave of consumer rage when the original Nexus was rolled out. With near-zero customer support. Oops.
Still, iPad is unbeatable. Much of its success is due to the brick-and-mortar Apple Stores, which Amazon completely lacks. On a good day, 1 million people around the world visit an Apple Store. And that happens several times a month. 1 billion visitors have been to an Apple Store since 2001.
This is critical because iPads (and all the xPad clones) are the kind of product that users need to first try in person. It's such an intimate form of computing. On their first experience, they're hooked. And after that, Apple.com (and oh, the irony, Amazon.com) are there when they want to buy more iPads for the family or upgrade to next year's model. See how that works? Take note, Amazon.