Published in AI

Tablet battle focuses on content

by on30 September 2011


Hardware takes second stage
Amazon will fight the rest of the tablet market with content, and this is something that Amazon doesn’t lack.

Kindle Fire got a lot of attention and despite the fact that it will take another month and a half until you will be able to get one, you can already tell that the $199 price tag can do magical things for most of the market.  Apple is without a doubt king of the tablet market for at least the better part of 2012, but we see Google with its partner alliance as serious competition in 2012. Whipping up Ice Cream Sandwich will help a lot as a tablet market to get more traction but $499 and even higher prices don’t go a long way towards making these devices more popular.

Google wanted to send a message that premium tablets will cost you money and that they come with Android 3.x nothing less than that. Amazon now changes this picture, it has its own app store, it has millions of books, it has millions of songs and movies, making Android Market less important than with any other Android based tablet.

Sony is apparently the only company in Google’s alliance that can match some of the content that Apple and Amazon are offering for tablets. Amazon is again showing that hardware is not as important as experience and content.

A week ago we had a chance to see Samsung ultra thin and sexy tablet 7.7-inch with Android 3.2 on it, but despite the sexiness we just laughed at €600 suggested retail price. Kindle Fire is thicker, lacks camera for photos and video, but it sells for roughly three times less, $199.

It only sucks that Amazon as well as many US companies these days are putting Europe in second tier launch plans, and we believe that these guys should learn a thing or two from Microsoft, a company that almost always launch stuff globally. Amazon had to choose US for its launch as it probably cannot get enough tablets for a simultaneous launch, but we expect to see Kindle Touch and other new Kindles soon.
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