Love Kindle? Well Kindle, the Tablet, is coming ‘before October’ says sources.Reports emerging late last week suggest Amazon’s answer to the iPad is coming ‘before October’ as it braces itself for an all out battle with tab king, the iPad.
And its not just one Amazon tab that the e-tailing giant will be unleashing, it has two separate devices up its sleeve, the Wall Street Journal reports, quoting sources close to the project. One model will be a touch device, 9″ screen and like Samsung, Motorola and Acer (and most other non iPad tabs) will run Google’s Android OS.
No word on the name or other specs either although Amazon will be hoping to replicate the success of its Kindle e-reader, its best selling product ever. By 2015 tab users will outnumber e-readers by 2:1, analysts predict.
However, unlike the eponymous iPad, Amazon’s tablet will lack a camera, according to sources, thus lacking typical mobility functions like Skype video-to-video calls.
The second mystery tab is said to be released next year. However, the beauty of Amazon’s new hardware is it has already has music, movie and e-reader content all lined up on its marathon Android Appstore, which offers cut price deals on games like Angry Birds (free on download), albums like Lady GaGa’s recent release which initially sold for just $0.99c, which could prove a major pull factor for roving tab consumers.
The Kindle tabs will cement tech rivals Apple and Amazon’s relationship status as “frenemies,” Forrester Research analyst, Sarah Rotman Epps believes. They “rely on each other as partners…at the same time, they aggressively compete for customers’ attention and dollars,” she told the Journal.
Indeed, Amazon.com flogs Apple’s iPod Touch, Nano and (somewhat ironically) its soon to be arch rival iPad 2, from third party retailers.
