Amazon Tablet May Cost Hundreds Less Than iPad

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by molman

Curious if people think Amazon will change the interface on their rumoured device much? I haven't personally used Android a lot when compared to iOS, and not on a tablet at all. With regards to iOS I see usability brought up a lot, but I don't actually think it is all that grand from a UI point of view. The whole page of icons is very Palm-esk, and a little clunky. I like Windows Phone conceptually, but not sure that the whole modality play really works in practise. Will be interesting to see if Amazon does much on this element of their product, or if it will just be about replacing some icons with Amazon services.

Its going to be intersting to see Amazon's interface. I'm betting that Amazon will go with the tried and true page of icons. Geeks tend not to like it, but its so simple three yearolds can figure it out, and Amazon will likely not break new ground here. The various Amazon stores will be front and center, as well as the Amazon Cloud app. The key will be their media player apps. Apple makes buying, playing and organizing music and media through Itunes a very fluid, intuitive experience. Android has nothing like that .

[molman]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Its going to be intersting to see Amazon's interface. I'm betting that Amazon will go with the tried and true page of icons. Geeks tend not to like it, but its so simple three yearolds can figure it out, and Amazon will likely not break new ground here. The various Amazon stores will be front and center, as well as the Amazon Cloud app. The key will be their media player apps. Apple makes buying, playing and organizing music and media through Itunes a very fluid, intuitive experience. Android has nothing like that .

It was interesting to see fusion garage's GRID tablet take a divergent approach to what is Android underneath. Then you have the 1/2 way skins like HTC's Sense (though I'm unsure if that has made its way to a Tablet?). Be nice to see Amazon take a holistic review of the experience beyond the obvious services integration. Having said all that, what is the UI like on the Kindle? Used one before, but don't own one so unsure what it is like as a day-to-day device. Does it speak well for Amazons UI sense?

[boswd]

Originally Posted by molman

It was interesting to see fusion garage's GRID tablet take a divergent approach to what is Android underneath. Then you have the 1/2 way skins like HTC's Sense (though I'm unsure if that has made its way to a Tablet?). Be nice to see Amazon take a holistic review of the experience beyond the obvious services integration. Having said all that, what is the UI like on the Kindle? Used one before, but don't own one so unsure what it is like as a day-to-day device. Does it speak well for Amazons UI sense?

I would be shocked if Amazon didn't do a custom skin UI for their tablet. I just hope it's not an overly dumbed down like Apple's iOS. That is just too dumbed down, Ok I get it you want a produt for the Jutin Bieber Tweeners and the Reader's Digest crowd but come on at least let the end user be able to have some options to add some customization beyond touching an icon and making it wiggle to put in a folder.

HTC did use Sense UI on their tablet, it's not a Honecomb tablet though. Sense UI is IMHO by far the best UI on the market. It's just so much fun to use.

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Personally, I haven't missed Flash that much on the Ipad. Most consumers can apparently live withouit Flash on their tablets. Again, the geeky sort want to have Flash run on their devices, even if its a buggy, battery-sucking b***ch of an option. Go figure.

Eh? It's the geeky users that actually understand why Flash is a PoS. It's the geeky users that are pushing HTML5 because of its superiority to Flash, in many cases refusing to use Flash at all.

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.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

Eh? It's the geeky users that actually understand why Flash is a PoS. It's the geeky users that are pushing HTML5 because of its superiority to Flash, in many cases refusing to use Flash at all.

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.

that's a good point. So many video's are flash based and most of shopping websites are flashed based as well.

HTML5 is far from being polished as Stone would like us all TO believe.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by boswd

That is just too dumbed down, Ok I get it you want a produt for the Jutin Bieber Tweeners and the Reader's Digest crowd...

Originally Posted by MovieBird

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.

Do you really need to boost your self-image by putting others down?

[din155]

Here are my wild guesses (more like fantasy):
Amazon tablet will be heavily inclined towards the reader/student market. As it already has kindle for that market, they will also include video capabilities. But they won't like to compromise on the battery life and would like it to be beyond 10 hrs so some fancy display like Mirasol (haven’t heard about that for quite sometime, maybe Amazon has asked for exclusive contract from Qualcomm just like Apple) optimized for videos. As it will be a student centric tablet, it will have some advanced hand writing recognition app with pen interface (just like flyer but much better) for note taking. Kindle app will be exactly as it in the kindle reader with some additional format support for textbooks. As someone already pointed out, it will have media streaming capabilities which will enable users to stream movies and songs across multiple platforms without needed any additional hardware (except HDMI cable maybe). The screen size will not be more than 8” and will have 15 hrs of battery life. I am not sure about gaming as I am not much into it. It will not weight more than 400 grams. How they are going to achieve all this? Don’t ask me; ask those analysts who are predicting sales of 3-5 millions for a product that hasn’t been announced yet.

din

[boswd]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Do you really need to boost your self-image by putting others down?

Just pointing out a reality. If you really think that the majority of people aren't buying iProducts because it's the hot trendy perception then you are only fooling yourself.

Take a 15 yr old. You can offer them a PMP (portable music player) that offers far above superior 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?

take the dude in skinny jeans, fake black rimmed glasses sucking down his soy milk latte surfing on his mac air. Do you really think that person would buy a mac if that lighted up Apple logo were to be removed?

[kjk]

Originally Posted by boswd

Just pointing out a reality. If you really think that the majority of people aren't buying iProducts because it's the hot trendy perception then you are only fooling yourself.

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?

take the dude in skinny jeans, fake black rimmed glasses sucking down his soy milk latte surfing on his mac air. Do you really think that person would buy a mac if that lighted up Apple logo were to be removed?

So your answer to murraypaul's question is, yes?

[murraypaul]

So people who buy iThings do so because they think it makes them cooler than others?

Whereas you seem to think that not buying them makes you clever than others?

I question the rationality of both.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

Eh? It's the geeky users that actually understand why Flash is a PoS. It's the geeky users that are pushing HTML5 because of its superiority to Flash, in many cases refusing to use Flash at all.

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.

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" and and major tech pundits predicted that the Ipad would fail because Flash was a major part of the Internet and that consumers would reject a no-Flash Internet experience.
A major selling point for Android was supposed to to be that its tablets would run Flash. AS it happened, consumers embraced the Ipad from day one, its lack of Flash notwithstanding. When Andriod tablets did appear, their Flash implementation was uniformly awful, thus proving Apple's point.
I guess the new anti-Apple talking points are that HTML 5 was always the future and that Apple somehow shortchanged once again the sheep who bought Apple products by not including Flash on the Ipad. They can't just admit that Apple was right about Flash for mobile devices.

[tubemonkey]

What the Amazon Tablet Needs to Succeed

By coming into the tablet market later than some major competitors, Amazon can learn from their experiences. It can borrow from the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, the Kindle, and the best of the other Android tablets out there—while finally, hopefully, adopting a somewhat subsidized (but carrier-free) pricing model that frees it from competing dollar-for-dollar with the iPad.

Here are seven things I think the Amazon tablet really needs to take off:

• A $249 price
• A one-handed design
• A truly great screen for reading
• The Honeycomb OS
• Amazon Appstore for Honeycomb
• WhisperNet
• Stability, smooth performance and feature completeness

[tubemonkey]

5 Predictions For Amazon's Tablet

Citing Amazon's influence, the strength of Android as a platform, and pent-up opportunity for outside players to dive into the Android app market, Epps said, "If Amazon launches a tablet at a sub-$300 price point--assuming it has enough supply to meet demand--we see Amazon selling 3-5 million tablets in Q4 alone." That's a big prediction.

As it happens, I have a few predictions of my own where Amazon's tablet is concerned. Here are five probable details about the forthcoming tablet that will set it apart from the pack.

• It will run Android
• It won't be very hackable
• It won't be very hackable
• It'll be low-power
• It won't be that cheap

[kjk]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

What the Amazon Tablet Needs to Succeed

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)

[=X=]

Originally Posted by boswd

I would be shocked if Amazon didn't do a custom skin UI for their tablet.

It's a catch 22 for Amazon. If they chose to alter the OS like B&N their on their own and the latest Android OS they'll be running is Gingerbread. The product will be obsolete the minute it comes out.

Given that Google has not released the HC source and if you noticed not one vendor has altered the HC interface I'd be surprised if Amazon comes out with a skinned OS that has HC.

Also using the B&N approach goes against what Amazon is doing which is promoting it's Appstore which is open to any android device. Really the best play for Amazon is to ship with the latest version of Android and have their apps heavily integrated with the OS.

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=