Amazon Tablet May Cost Hundreds Less Than iPad

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by kjk

I can't imagine Amazon missing on any of those points except one-handed design. (No idea about cost, except it will be under the iPad)

If Amazon wants to have the hottest selling device this Holiday season, their tablet should target the Nook Color with better specs, features and pricing.

Some possibilities:

• $249 - Kindle Tab 3G
• $224 - Kindle Tab 3G with Special Offers
• $224 - Kindle Tab WiFi
• $199 - Kindle Tab WiFi with Special Offers

[petermillard]

Originally Posted by boswd

Take 15 yr old. You can offer them a PMP that offers far above audio quality, supports the most audio formats and it's just sounds soo much better and then offer them an iPod, the 15 yr old will take the iPod despite it being a lesser product. Why?

Perhaps because, to them, it isn't a "lesser" product? Perhaps to them, iTunes synching and AppStore access is more important than subjective sound quality and support for those weird formats their music teacher used to bang on about. Or yes, sure, maybe because an iPod is the cool MP3 player their friends have - what's wrong with that, if it also suits their needs?

Back to KindlePad™ - all Amazon has to do to make it more of a success than the Nook Colour is to make it available to other countries <shrug>

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

It's the general consumer that gets pissed off when they can't use the buttons on their favorite website because Apple hates Flash. Yet they still flock to Apple products, showing that telegraphing your coolness to others is more important than assessing your own needs for a product.

It is okay for you to not like Apple products, or the iPad in particular.

It is offensive, insulting, and stupid for you and people like you to keep insisting that people who buy iPads are idiots who are swayed by marketing and are only interested in looking cool.

This may be hard for you to understand, but for most people the iPad is the superior product. This is why it is massively outselling competing tablets - because it is better overall than the competition. Which is obvious if you are a regular consumer - Netflix wasn't even available on Android until two months ago. I mean, I agree that not having flash can be a minor inconvenience sometimes - but not having netflix on a tablet is terminally stupid, since one of their big selling points is *watching videos.*

The relative absence of apps - while now improving for Android - is another reason the 30 million so-called idiots went for the iPad.

I mean, look at Xoom's marketing - significant because it was the first Honeycomb tablet. It was only offered at $200 above the cheapest iPad, and at $100 over the most popular iPad. While flash and expandable storage were theoretical advantages, the Xoom shipped with neither functioning, but a promise to make them work later. (Which they did a few months later...but seriously, who wants to buy something unfinished?).

Finally, although not really of importance to normal consumers, the Android tablets all made the mistake of running Tegra 2, a somewhat dated processor that sometimes struggles with animations (particularly where a tablet isn't running straight Android). Or, as Anandtech put it "Apple outfitted the iPad 2 with a pair of ARM Cortex A9s and a GPU significantly faster than anything else on the market."

In short, people bought iPads because the competition sucked. Not because they are easily manipulable fools.

(And it's silly for Android fans to pretend that only Apple fans are concerned with coolness - there's just as much trendiness in being "open source," running Linux, and posing as being too sophisticated to use Apple products as there is in using Apple).

But, seriously, who knowingly buys an unfinished product?

[=X=]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Let's not rewrite history here. One of the major objections the tech crowd had to the IPad was that it didn't do Flash. Apple was attacked for its "arrogance"

I think it's you that's rewriting history.

It wasn't because the iPad lacked flashed that angered people it's because Apple chose to DENY Flash access as well as many of Adobe's products. They where choosing what vendors get to have access to their platform. There is no technical reason to have denied flash. As a matter of fact many iPad folks have jailbroken their iPad to run Flash.

Android is about choice and has always been about choice. The ads that promoted "Flash" is nothing more than a subtle way of saying it's an open platform".

You have proven many times that you speak with little knowledge of what you say. Stating "Flash" is a geek thing is furthest from the truth. Most people with any technical background will tell you Flash is not a satisfactory solution. Primarily because it is over used by the non techies(flash developers) and web consumers who do not understand the limitations of Flash yet demand a working solution. Every techie wants HTML 5 to succeeded.

Again I'll repeat it in case you missed it the first time it was and always has been about CHOICE.

=X=

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

If Amazon wants to have the hottest selling device this Holiday season, their tablet should target the Nook Color with better specs, features and pricing.

Some possibilities:

• $249 - Kindle Tab 3G
• $224 - Kindle Tab 3G with Special Offers
• $224 - Kindle Tab WiFi
• $199 - Kindle Tab WiFi with Special Offers

That would certainly sell a lot at those prices.

I'm really hoping for Nook Color like form factor (it's easy to hold with one hand) but hopefully lighter.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

I mean, look at Xoom's marketing - significant because it was the first Honeycomb tablet. It was only offered at $200 above the cheapest iPad, and at $100 over the most popular iPad. While flash and expandable storage were theoretical advantages, the Xoom shipped with neither functioning, but a promise to make them work later. (Which they did a few months later...but seriously, who wants to buy something unfinished?).

I agree with much of what you say, but, the XOOM price thing annoys me. The equivalent XOOM and iPad are identical in cost (in the UK, anyway). Oh, and flash worked straight out of the box, didn't it?

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

...
In short, people bought iPads because the competition sucked. Not because they are easily manipulable fools...

Gotta agree. I don't know how many times I've been tempted to buy from day one. Well, not day one. Was initially disappointed it didn't run OS/X. Took a few months to get over that.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by kjk

I can't imagine Amazon missing on any of those points except one-handed design. (No idea about cost, except it will be under the iPad)

Amazon is releasing two tablets. One to compete with the nook the other to compete with the iPad. The 7" will be cheaper than the iPad, but I don't know about the 10". I don't they they have to be cheaper to compete but they have to offer something different.

=X=

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

If Amazon wants to have the hottest selling device this Holiday season, their tablet should target the Nook Color with better specs, features and pricing.

Some possibilities:

• $249 - Kindle Tab 3G
• $224 - Kindle Tab 3G with Special Offers
• $224 - Kindle Tab WiFi
• $199 - Kindle Tab WiFi with Special Offers

This sounds good, but the other thing that is important to me will be if it is open to loading other reading apps on it other than Kindle, and being able to add epub books.

If everything on it is only Amazon/Kindle based without the ability to go outside of their infrastructure, then I'm not interested.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

This sounds good, but the other thing that is important to me will be if it is open to loading other reading apps on it other than Kindle, and being able to add epub books.

If everything on it is only Amazon/Kindle based without the ability to go outside of their infrastructure, then I'm not interested.

They offer other reader apps in their app store now. B&N NOOK isn't there, but that's not surprising. My favorite, Mantano Reader reads Adobe DRMed ePubs for those who don't want to liberate their library.

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by =X=

However I have this sinking feeling Amazon won't do that. What I suspect will happen is they will have a 7" model that uses the B&N approach and their Hollywood model 10" will be an Android tablet unmodified.
=X=

I don't see how they can use the B&N approach at this point, given that they have a non-proprietary app store already.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by =X=

Android is about choice and has always been about choice. The ads that promoted "Flash" is nothing more than a subtle way of saying it's an open platform".

You have proven many times that you speak with little knowledge of what you say. Stating "Flash" is a geek thing is furthest from the truth. Most people with any technical background will tell you Flash is not a satisfactory solution. Primarily because it is over used by the non techies(flash developers) and web consumers who do not understand the limitations of Flash yet demand a working solution. Every techie wants HTML 5 to succeeded.

Again I'll repeat it in case you missed it the first time it was and always has been about CHOICE.

Thank you! I do also think a lot of techies dislike Flash. It's a resource-guzzling hog. Personally, I don't really mind not having Flash. If you don't use ad-blockers, it's really nice not being subject to those garish Flash ads. It's really just having Apple dictate what you can and cannot run on a device you bought that chafes.

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

In short, people bought iPads because the competition sucked.

Unfortunately, this was also true. Apple wasn't the first to come out with a tablet/slate but they were the first to come out with one that's easy enough to use for the mass market at the right price. While $500 might seem expensive, tablets/slates that were being sold before the iPad cost around the same or more and where generally a pain to use (resistive touchscreen, bad UI, etc).

I'm optimistic that newer Android tablets will soon overtake Apple market share as is the case with smartphones but it'll be a while before that happens.

I am, however, looking forward to see what Windows 8 has in store.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by SCION

They offer other reader apps in their app store now. B&N NOOK isn't there, but that's not surprising.

I wonder about this. I'm running CM7 on my Nook Color but I'm pretty sure you can install the Kindle app on a stock NC. Is this a case of Amazon banning the Nook app from their Appstore or did B&N just not submit their app to Amazon?

[SCION]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I wonder about this. I'm running CM7 on my Nook Color but I'm pretty sure you can install the Kindle app on a stock NC. Is this a case of Amazon banning the Nook app from their Appstore or did B&N just not submit their app to Amazon?

You're running CM7. You can do what you wish in that mode. The NOOK app store (what unrooted devices only have access to) doesn't have the Kindle app.

[afa]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I am, however, looking forward to see what Windows 8 has in store.

Me, too. I've seen the demos and it looks pretty sweet.

Unfortunately, it will not come out anytime soon. As usual, Microsoft will be so late to the party that the market won't give a damn. See what's happening with Windows Phone 7. Most tech sites admit that while it is a pretty good OS, it doesn't bring anything that new to the table. A year or so earlier, and it might have trumped Android in some features.

Take a bow, Microsoft. You're the undisputed King of Just A Little Too Late.

I think their Entertainment & Devices guys (i.e., the ones in charge of XBox) are the only ones who see the value in being the leaders rather than the followers.