Internet giant to enter the tabs war as reports indicate it has placed its first order for 800,000 touch-screen tabs with maker Quanta Computer.
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And it could be just the first of many with a Digitimes report suggesting monthly orders during ‘peak season’ could hit 700,000-800,000 units. Shipments are expected to begin in the second half of 2011.
The system, which is very likely to run on Android, would join the likes of Motorola and BlackBerry as they battle it out with tablet king Apple, whose iPad accounts for 80 per cent of the market.
In fact, some consumers, who have not yet caught the tablet bug, believe the iPad refers to all tablet devices, and are not really aware of rival devices, such is their market supremacy.
This could be a very shrewd move by the Kindle makers, given that they already run an Android apps and music store rivalling Apple iTunes, thus have some of the key artillery already in place to bite the giant where it hurts.
Considering the online retail powerhouse is one of the biggest in the world, it also has an ideal channel from which to flog the device. Amazon is also one of the most visited sites in Australia.
And Amazon is no stranger to huge success in the hand held device category with the Kindle eReader its best selling product, and outselling books by 3:1, 115 Kindles have been sold for every 100 paperbacks, it said in January.
However, some analysts believe the category has matured and will be eaten up by the flurry of tab devices, most of which have in built eReader capabilities, including the Motorola Xoom and Acer Iconia, released here recently.
By 2015 tab holder will outnumber e-readers by 2:1, analysts predict.
And Apple are not happy Amazon has arrived on the Apps scene recently filed an injunction with a Californian court claiming Amazon infringed patent rights for its “App Store” name, which it currently holds.
Taiwan based Quanta make notebooks and smartphones and are already BlackBerry’s blackberry playbook; and Sony’s tablet partner.