Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the forthcoming Amazon’s tablet device. The online retailer will enter the super-competitive market and it must deliver an awesome product to differentiate its offering from the rest of the pack. That said here are some thoughts I had about the upcoming Kindle tablet (or that’s Kindle tablets)…
It must beat B&N’s Nook Color!
First of all, Amazon is obviously looking and thoroughly analyzing Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color. Their idea gotta be to launch a better device, which is more capable yet could compete in terms of the price. The Nook Color could be yours for $249 so Amazon will have to work really hard to make its product competitive. Then again, it’s not just about competing with Barnes & Noble. Which leads me to…
The iPad factor
I guess we shouldn’t expect the device as powerful as iPad 2 for 250 bucks. Amazon may look at the long-term value of its customers and decide to subsidize its tablet to be able to compete with modern tablets with dual-core processor. Let’s face it – not many of us will end up with two tablets. One should work just fine and if we need ebooks, there are dedicated apps for reading (the Kindle app included). That said, the online retailer should shoot for the stars, launching a product that gets its power from a fast dual or maybe even quad-core processor. The price may be the issue, but I’m sure Amazon will be able to find a way to make such a product affordable (or so I hope).
Two devices are better than one?
As I said, it is hard to imagine a dual-core CPU-powered super tablet which costs $250 even if Amazon decides to subsidize it. In that sense, they may unveil more than a single product. The cheaper one could costs as much as the Nook Color, while offering some additional bells and whistles. On the other hand, the other Kindle tablet would get all the power to run the latest games (and whatnot) smoothly.
It’s not just an ebook reader
Amazon will definitely want to tie in its growing number of services with the Kindle tablet. Amazon’s cloud-based services will most definitely come preloaded, offering additional storage and something extra (I can’t imagine what’s that) to the tablet owners. Moreover, it’s safe to assume a number of apps will be available to everyone who purchases the new tablet, which is something Amazon is already offering to folks who purchase Android smartphones and tablet through Amazon Wireless.
Ergonomics
When the original Kindle was unveiled, Jeff Bezos talked about ergonomics and all the effort that was made to make the device easy to use. I’m sure they’ll do their homework this time around as well, delivering slightly better (than competing tablets) experience. As a matter of fact, I’m sure Amazon is testing several device designs as we speak.
Android will run the show
Even though I argued for a partnership between HP and Amazon to make a webOS-based tablet, I’m pretty sure the Kindle tablet will run Android. However, I bet Amazon will (try to?) customize the heck out of it to make the tablet even easier to use or at least to make its services promptly displayed on the homescreen.
And that’s about all I had to say about Amazon’s upcoming tablet. Is there something you want to see in their first such product? Comments form is all yours…