A new rumor coming from the hit-or-miss New York Post suggests that the much-rumored Amazon tablet could be coming out as early as September and it could be “hundreds less” than the Apple iPad.
The move makes a lot of sense because even stellar iPad competitors like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 haven’t been able to replicate Apple’s success in the tablet market yet. The recent super-cheap HP TouchPad shows there is a hunger for tablets but only if it is significantly cheaper than the Apple tablet. I mean, most people want an iPad and will buy that if there’s no compelling reason (read: price) to buy an alternative.
Of course, an Amazon tablet could be hundreds less than an iPad and still not even be in the same ballpark, as we’ve heard rumors that it will have two tablets: a 7-inch version and a 10-inch device. The 7-inch tablet is expected to have an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor but we’ve heard that it will be more of a Nook Color competitor than an iPad competitor. This version could easily be sold for $200 or $250 but wouldn’t likely be a direct competitor to the iPad.
The 10-inch Amazon tablet is expected to run Android and to be one of the first tablets to rock the Kal-El quad-core processor. That means it should be a powerhouse but I wouldn’t expect that cutting-edge technology to be cheap. Amazon could eat some of its profit margins to try and make this thing popular but I have a hard time believing the 10-inch version with a Kal-El chip could come out hundreds of dollars cheaper than the iPad and still be a really good product.
Hopefully, Amazon proves me wrong, as I would love an awesome Amazon tablet that retails for about $300 or so. Heck, as long as we’re dreaming, let’s hope Amazon will even subsidize some of the 3G. What do you think, friends?
[Via New York Post]