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Amazon's Android Tablet Expected This Fall

Posted by timothy on from the all-the-cool-bookstores-have-their-own dept.

According to the New York Post — among many others — Amazon is expected to launch its long-anticipated color tablet in late September or October, and the device is slated to sell for 'hundreds less' than the iPad, which implies a price of $300 or less. MSNBC says much the same, but adds some (their words) "generic looking mockups" to illustrate. I expect millions of Kindle owners will happily skip the added weight and shorter battery life of a full-fledged tablet, but it's good to have options.

21 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Kindle != Tablet by Darkness404 · · Score: 2

    The Kindle, along with the Nook and every other e-reader out there is distinctly different from a tablet, because they have one goal, make it easy to read on a screen. With e-ink, it looks just like paper and doesn't give you the eyestrain that an LCD or CRT does after reading for a few hours on it.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:Kindle != Tablet by itsdapead · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The issue is that studies have shown that a tablet actually doesn't give you eye strain

      ...but the comparison isn't tablet vs. laptop, it is reflective e-ink vs. illuminated LCD.

      I have both a tablet and a Kindle: the tablet is better for reference books, because it has a larger screen, color, and the navigation/zooming/panning/following links is far better with a touchscreen and a rapidly updateable display.

      However, for sitting down and reading a novel, the kindle is far more restful: apart from any "eyestrain" issues, it has better visibility in sunlight (tablets aren't brilliant outdoors) is smaller, lighter and the battery lasts far longer than a tablet. You could add a touchscreen - but because e-ink is so slow to update you couldn't make it as tactile as iOS/Android.

      Tablets and readers aren't going to converge until there is a display that combines the clarity and power consumption of e-ink with the speed and colour reproduction of LCD (e.g. the electrowetting system that is in development). I haven't tried an OLPD-style hybrid display - if Amazon go for that they might have something.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  2. Tablet Battery Life? by multipartmixed · · Score: 2

    > I expect millions of Kindle owners will happily skip the added weight
    > and shorter battery life of a full-fledged tablet,

    I buy that the Kindle could have a less eye-strainy screen than an iPad, but how good ARE the batteries in these things? My iPad will a full day of use, and if I'm only using it casually, it goes a couple of weeks between charges.

    As for weight, I always thought that was battery-related. The iPad, when put in a book-like case, feels a little denser than paper to me. Feather-light would be nice, but it's not like it weighs 15 lbs.

    --

    Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
    1. Re:Tablet Battery Life? by subreality · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Kindle goes for weeks without being careful about battery life. One of the cool things about e-ink is that the image persists passively, so when you turn the page, it just powers up for a moment to flip then goes back to sleep.

    2. Re:Tablet Battery Life? by Oakey · · Score: 2

      I bought a Kindle 6 weeks ago. It's probably my most used device. I use it for a few hours every day. I haven't charged it since I bought it! There's still about 20% battery remaining and I've had Wifi enabled from day one.

      Also, it's unbeatable outdoors. I recently picked up a cheap Touchpad. Tried using it outside, it behaves like a giant mirror. It's either covered in grimy fingerprints which makes it barely legible, or it's polished clean which just reflects myself in it.

      The Kindle is an amazing bit of kit for the price, but as people keep saying, Kindles and Tablets are two different things. Prior to my Kindle I used the Kindle PC app and read a few books on my laptop and seriously, now I have the Kindle I can't imagine going back to reading on a colour screen. The e-ink displays just feels so natural.

      --
      "Dre don't get as high as me.... I'm Cheech and Chong" - Snoop Dogg
    3. Re:Tablet Battery Life? by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Informative

      Depends on whether 3G/Wifi is on or not. It usually lasts about two weeks with moderate use if wireless is on. If wireless is off, well, in my experience the battery life is measured in months.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  3. Re:Great! by hedwards · · Score: 2

    Or you can just get a nook color and jail break it. B&N has shown no interest in prventing folks from doing so, and there's already firmware available for it. . For instance Cyanogenmod.

  4. Re:What about... by David_Hart · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, Apple's strength is both the design and the supply chain. The design is being copied, as we knew it would. However, supply chain is also Amazon's forte. The other thing that Apple has going for it is iTunes store, which provides content updates and keeps the iPad, iPod, and iPhone relevant. In order for amazon to succeed it needs to replicate this integation.

    Amazon is one of the few companies that has the necessary infrastructure and resources to succeed. Will they? Only time will tell... But I wouldn't be so quick to write them off...

    David

  5. Re:Disciples by ChinggisK · · Score: 3, Funny

    No no, you must be confused, Amazon is making this tablet, not Apple.

  6. Re:Bigger, please! by galaad2 · · Score: 2

    These folks aren't getting it. Bigger is better. I work with many businesses and they would all love a bigger tablet - the size of a piece of paper - like a 13" model. They'd snap those up so fast, it would make the HP fire sale look amateurish.

    bigger is better? then how about a 21-inch or a 24-inch one? not exactly portable but they work almost like a tablet if you don't need to move around.

    here:
    24 inch: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/18/wacom-cintiq-24hd-approved-by-fcc-makes-us-wish-we-went-to-art/

    21 inch (and 12 inch) ones:
    http://www.wacom.com/en/Products/Cintiq/Compare%20Models.aspx

    --
    root@127.0.0.1
  7. The jury is out? by mevets · · Score: 2

    The jury is out searching for more of those discounted hp touchpads. The jury don't give a tinkers cuss for open source, etc... they want something usable and inexpensive.
    Shocking, I know, but you can't account for the behaviour of the commoners.

    1. Re:The jury is out? by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The HP Touchpad may well be selling just because it's something selling at $100 that's perceived to be worth $400. Or it might be selling because people think it'll sell for $250 on eBay. Or many other reasons. Add to that the fact that non-geeks don't seem to be talking about is as geeks are (in my neck of the woods at least), and you can't really rush to judgment based upon the Touchpad alone. That's why the jury is out.

      It's a shame HP didn't hide the "fire sale" part of it, and, say, cut the price in half (eg to $200) for a couple of weeks before announcing its discontinuation. That would have given us a little more information on whether the problem is price or something else.

      I'm not sure why you thought you put a jab at open source in there BTW. I was describing why I wouldn't get one, I never suggested that was a universal sentiment. That said, I'll make two important points here:

      First, as general advice, anyone who tries a completely new platform that carries a severe risk of being completely discontinued without ensuring that a mechanism for third party support exists - ie that the code is open, is making a grave mistake. Take this as someone whose first computers were a Dragon 32, a Sinclair QL, and a Commodore Amiga.

      Second, right now one thing that's holding tablets back is the fact that the "open source" operating systems available for that kind of form factor (essentially, Android 1.x and 2.x) aren't optimized for the system. That's why there's a lot of crap from ViewSonic, Archos, et al. Look at the hardware they sell, and it's not bad at all (at least, the hardware in the $200+ range), but the tablets are hampered by ugly half-assed UIs designed to replace the phone UIs on the versions of Android they're using. That's why Icecream Sandwich is so important, it'll be the first completely open tablet operating system that virtually any manufacturer can pick up and install.

      Whether consumers care isn't the issue here, even though they should What matters here is getting a quality, affordable, usable tablet out there, and in this environment, I think that's going to be very difficult without an free and open operating system with a quality UI.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  8. I have a kindle by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have a kindle, and it's a fantastic device. I'm certainly not an "Amazon hipster" (I didn't even know there was such a thing) I don't buy anything from the amazon store, my kindle is rooted and I do with it as I please. It's best features are not found anywhere else: The screen is amazing and I charge it once a MONTH at most. I read every day and the kindle lets me blaze through books. I have it filled with automotive service manuals, emergency guides, maps, all of which combine make it perfect for emergencies in which the power could go out rendering all other devices useless.

    I'm sure there are people out there that buy them just so they can sit in starbucks and look cool, but that's not the magic of the device. If they can improve the screen by adding color and improved refresh rates, add more tablet features like improved web browsing, some more basic applications like a calendar, calculator, maybe even GPS, while keeping the battery life significantly longer than other devices, I think they'll destroy the tablet market. All this superfluous stuff people are doing with tablets right now, like games, videos, etc, are just driving the market in the wrong direction. High power use, low battery life... Phones already do all that, we don't need a big cellphone. We need a computerize book/map/encyclopedia/notebook. THAT is where tablets will win big in the long run and the only company doing that right now is Amazon.

    1. Re:I have a kindle by MacTO · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There are plenty of Kindle-like devices on the market. Sometimes the Kindle will offer things they don't (keyboard, 3G, etc.). Sometimes the competition will offer things Amazon doesn't (touch screen, SD slot, etc.).

      Here's the thing: I think Amazon wants to have a tablet to avoid becoming irrelevant in the ereader space because it is literally fighting a two front war: you have the special purpose, typically e-ink based, readers on one side; and you have the general purpose, large format, colour tablets on the other.

      Is it going to work for Amazon? I'm not a businessman so I don't know. But I do think that Amazon is going to be crushed in the tablet market and that they should be working on perfecting what they have (e.g. ePub support, functional PDF support, colour reflective displays, higher refresh rates on displays, etc.) to combat their ereader competition.

  9. Re:More products for consumers by kanweg · · Score: 2

    Like this?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_KYUF6pxR8&feature=player_embedded

    Bert

  10. Re:Great! by hedwards · · Score: 2

    Docking stations suck. iPads, iPhones and iPods have to use a proprietary port to do it and I'd personally rather know that I can plug the thing into most computers using a standard cable and have it work. My Nook can be plugged into either my Windows laptop or my Linux desktop and it just works and I can do it with a standard microUSB cable.

  11. Re:Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have you tried it. I have a tablet... and I NEVER read books on it. I always read the on the Kindle - the screen is just so much better, it's the right size, and I rarely if ever think about the battery. It's like a paper book with pages that magically rewrite themselves.

    I'm sometimes loathe to admit it - but with the Kindle 3 Amazon really got it right. It's the first ereader I've seen that I would consider a replacement for a book - for like, normal, people and not tech-head weirdos like me.

  12. Re:What about... by Karlt1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Apple insists on a very large profit margin. They can be underpriced by someone with the money to commit to large volume production.

    Yes, Apple does enjoy it's profit margin, but that doesn't mean that anyone else can make an equivalent device cheaper and at a profit, Apple has a number of things going for them that no one else has.

    1 - Buying power. Apple has been the largest consumer of flash memory since around the time that the first Nano came out. Not to mention the buying power from using a lot of the same hardware across multiple devices and selling more than any other single company (iPads+iPhones+iPod Touches and to a lesser extent Macs).

    2. Huge cash reserves -- Apple can invest billions in other companies and buy out all of their capcity for year.

    3. Apple retail stores/online store (not a problem for Amazon obviously). Apple captures the wholesale and the retail markup for many of its products. Besides when you walk into an Apple store there is no competition from other companies -- unlike Best Buy or even Amazon.

  13. Re:Great! by onjulic · · Score: 2

    I'm pretty sure any stand for the iPad would work for the Nook Color, as well.

    The Nook Color comes in a box that can be used as a stand. Flip it open and it clicks into place and is designed to hold the Nook Color, at an angle, in portrait mode. It was clearly design that way, yet they don't publicize it very well.

  14. It's too bad Linux netbooks died by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The sub-$200 Linux netbook market seems to have completely disappeared, killed by Microsoft. There's some MeeGo crap, but that's tethered to an "app store", so it's like buying a subsidized phone. ("Creates a direct connection between your wallet and our bank account.")

    I do enough input that I want a keyboard. Tablets are for passive consumers; you know, TV watchers.

  15. Desperately trying to keep prices up by Animats · · Score: 2

    The average selling price for subnotebooks rose to $521 last july from $343 in July of 2010." The industry is desperately trying to stop generic $200 machines from taking over the industry.