I Want One of those Tablet Thingies

[gobbledonk]

Hi,

 

Looks like but for that price you can buy a tablet *and* a real computer.

 

Sanuk!

 

True, but are you going to carry both onto a plane or even onto the Skytrain ? I agree that the price is over the top, but I'm hoping 'trickle down' will put this kind of power within everyone's reach sooner rather than later. I recently paid 630 AUD for a laptop that I *know* was retailing for over a thousand at the beginning of the year, and it absolutely hammers anything I've ever owned - Mac or PC. Anyone still sitting on the fence over 64-bit Windows 7 needs to see this thing encode a video ....

[Julian2]

What laptop did you buy Gobble?

[Julian2]

Kindle Tablet is coming, what it means to consumers

 

Summary: It appears Amazon is getting ready to unleash the Kindle Tablet on the world this week. Here’s what it means to consumers like you.

 

The Amazon tablet has been the topic of rumors for months, including a hands-on look by TechCrunch. Amazon is expected to release the Kindle Tablet into the world this week at a press event to be held on Wednesday. The tech world is understandably buzzing about how this tablet from Amazon will compete with the top selling iPad, but the reality is Amazon doesn’t care about competing with any tablet on the market.

 

What we think we know about the Kindle Tablet

 

It will be a 7-inch multitouch tablet, running a special Amazon-produced interface that sits on an Android kernel. This interface will not look like Android, nor will it run like Android tablets. It will be an Amazon effort through and through, with the kernel the only thing in common with Android.

 

The Kindle Tablet will be deeply integrated with Amazon’s content sales, with ebooks, music, and videos easily purchased and consumed on the tablet. It will be focused on this objective, not on becoming yet another Android tablet. Techies may not like this locked-down system, but they are not the intended audience.

 

The Kindle Tablet will sell for $250, much cheaper than competing tablets. It will come with an Amazon Prime membership which provides free shipping on some Amazon purchases, a $79 value. Amazon will likely tie other purchase incentives to the Tablet, and will likely integrate Amazon’s Kindle library book service.

 

What this means

 

While those of us involved in the tech space understandably look to the Kindle Tablet to compete with Android tablets and the iPad, Amazon has no intention to do so. The Kindle Tablet is designed by Amazon to appeal to mainstream consumers, the Kindle market, and to facilitate selling that market goods from the Amazon store.

 

While the initial objective of the Kindle Tablet will be to sell consumers digital goods from the Amazon store, it will quickly branch out from that to include all retail goods. Incentives will make this easy for Amazon, with discounts offered for purchases made from the Kindle Tablet, to free shipping on such purchases.

 

Make no mistake, Amazon doesn’t want to sell you a tablet, it wants to sell you more stuff. The Kindle Tablet will make this easy to do, and easy to enjoy the digital goods purchased on the tablet. Competing with Apple and Android tablets will be a natural side effect of the Kindle Tablet, but it’s not Amazon’s objective.

 

It wants to expose millions of buyers to the benefits of buying stuff from the Amazon store. Don’t overlook the fact that the bulk of Amazon’s digital content for sale can already be used on both the iPad and Android tablets. They are in fact vehicles driving Amazon sales, not strictly tablet competitors.

 

Related:

 

* Amazon expected to sell 3 to 5 million tablets in Q4 2011

* Amazon’s Kindle tablet doesn’t need to be an ‘iPad killer’ to be a winner

* Amazon, others cave to Apple on in-app purchases today, HTML5 tomorrow

* Wal-Mart vs Amazon in California tax law battle: Booksellers in the crossfire

* Amazon, Netflix aim to fast forward shift to digital media over physical

* Amazon tablet drumbeat picks up; likely to land by October

* Amazon reportedly preps tablet orders: Volume points to subsidized devices

* Amazon Prime adds over 1,000 more movies, TV shows for streaming

 

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/kindle-tablet-is-coming-what-it-means-to-consumers/4675?tag=nl.e539

[gobbledonk]

What laptop did you buy Gobble?

 

Tosh Satellite Pro C650 - core i3, 4GB RAM, 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium, 500GB HDD - pretty boring, I admit, but leagues ahead of my old netbook and the Macbook Pro I had.

[Julian2]

Amazon unveils new tablet device, named Kindle Fire

 

AMAZON is out to burn Apple with a full colour tablet that's less than half the price of the iPad.

 

The online retail giant today unveiled the Kindle Fire, its long-awaited touchscreen computer which experts believe could challenge Apple's dominance.

 

The Kindle Fire runs on Google's Android software and costs only $US199 - the cheapest iPads retail at $US499 - and will let users download books, magazines, newspapers, videos and music.

 

It will have access to apps through Amazon's Android store and, unlike the iPad, doesn't need to be backed up on a PC. Instead, it backs up its contents wirelessly on Amazon's servers.

 

Launching the Kindle Fire in New York, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it was "unbelievable value".

 

However, unlike the iPad and many other tablets, the Kindle Fire doesn't have a camera or mobile internet access. It's screen, at 7in, is much smaller than the iPad's.

 

Amazon also showed off a new line of Kindle e-readers: the Kindle Touch has a black-and-white screen and will cost $US99; the non-touchscreen Kindle will cost $79.

 

All models, including the Kindle Fire, will go on sale in November but users outside America will have to wait.

 

The Kindle Fire is a close match to Barnes & Nobles' Nook Colour tablet, which came out last year, but while Barnes & Noble sees the Nook Colour as a jazzed-up e-reader, Amazon has broader goals for the Fire, as a platform for games, movies, music and other apps.

 

Even before its release, the Kindle Fire was heralded as a worthy competitor to Apple's iPad. Amazon is nearly unique in its ability to sell content such as e-books, movies and music suited for a tablet - just like Apple does.

 

But competing with Apple won't be easy. Many have tried to copy the iPad's success, but so far, it is the overwhelming frontrunner in the tablet computer category. Apple sold 28.7 million of them from April 2010 to June 2011. Analysts at research firm Gartner Inc expect the iPad to account for three out of four tablet sales this year.

 

Reaction to Amazon's challenge to Apple was mostly positive.

 

Gizmodo raved about the Fire, saying: "This is incredible. This is a killer price for a colour tablet. Even while it doesn't match the iPad's features, there's going to be some fierce competition this year."

 

Will Findlater, editor of Stuff magazine, told the BBC: "It's the price and the backup services that make it really exciting. Content is the big differentiator. It's what every other platform has been lacking, except the iPad."

 

However, tech analyst Adam Leach said the screen size was a cause for concern.

 

"This screen size has undoubtedly helped them achieve a lower price point for the device but so far this form factor has not been popular with consumers, we shall see if this is related to other aspects of those devices other than its screen size," he said.

 

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/technology/amazon-unveils-new-tablet-device-named-kindle-fire/story-e6freaal-1226150923294

 

This won't bother the iPad but everything else that falls between the two will really struggle now.