If you thought the tablet wars were almost over, you were wrong. Amazon is now on the list of companies that wants to put out their own tablet, in hopes of competing with giants like Apple and Google.
There is fire brewing in the nostrils of Amazon, one of the largest online retailers in the world. They plan on using the Google Android platform for their very own tablet. There is no name for it yet but a few code names have popped up; “Coyote” and “Hollywood”. Just the fact that they are using Android is going to put a kink in the tail of Google. They are also not going to charge much for it, which will put some worms into the Apple company. They plan on having the work done from other companies and then putting their name on it, much like Google does with smartphones.
The size of the upcoming Amazon tablet should be about the same as the iPads. The display is going to be nine inches in size. An iPad screen is 9.7 inches. But like Walmart has the retail market sewed up, Apple has the tablet market sewed up as well. Apple is able to put out a nice quality tablet because they order in bulk. If Amazon has the same connections, it is possible they could bring a cheaper tablet to market and still have enough quality to please users.
Then there is the Google side of the tablet scene. Google does not yet have their own tablet. They make the mobile operating system that works in many tablets and smartphones, but none of their own hardware. No Android tablet is currently a threat to the Apple iPad. The iPad starts at $500 dollars and Android tablets that are that price or less are not equals in quality to the iPad.
Amazon has already placed their orders for tablets to sell. They plan on selling 1 to 1.2 million of them in the third quarter of this year. The marketing power that Amazon has with ebooks is going to give Amazon the ability to sell their creation lower than others. As with the Kindle, they make a slim profit, but they do make that profit. If anyone remembers, Amazon started up their own Android app store, causing a fit with Apple, strangely enough. Android tablets will be able to use the Amazon app store and have the same “in house” experience that Apple iPad users have.
Amazon plans on having at least one successful tablet this year and a successful app store to support it. If they pull this off with their “battle tablet”, expect it to eat a large hole in Google profits.
