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Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

nytimes.com

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Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#21

Post by jonknee »

chugger wrote: post #18

What's the value add other than tight integration with Amazon Cloud, etc. ? is it compelling enough for most users to ditch the Xoom, Touch Pad, Galaxy Tab, etc. over this tablet?

Most users aren't on any of those, Amazon could have a good quarter and sell more of their tablet than all of those combined.

That said, it's going to be half (or even less) the price and have seamless access to a very wide array of content. I don't think they're worried about the Xoom, or the discontinued TouchPad and or the new Galaxy Tab that's illegal to sell in most major markets... They're clearly leveling up against the iPad.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#22

Post by chugger »

riffraff wrote: post #20
latch wrote: post #19

I'm just not ready to bet against Apple. I think we're at the point where the only way for anyone to take any significant chunk of profit from Apple's [growing] core business, is for Apple to have a couple significant missteps.

how do you define significant? As far as I can tell they did have a couple missteps (Apple TV, Ping) already.

Apple TV is doing well for a "hobby" compared to Google TV. and Ping's failure is not hurting Apple at all. Amazon however, does not nearly have as much cash and resources as Apple or Google. if Amazon fails in this it can potentially hurt their bottom line.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#23

Post by jacques_chester »

itswindy wrote: post #2

"With the tablet, Amazon is a follower. That’s never as good." Unless you sell it for half a price is good enough for most people.

> ... Amazon is a follower. That’s never as good.

I guess this is why Friendster have crushed MySpace and Facebook in turn.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#24

Post by latch »

riffraff wrote: post #20
latch wrote: post #19

I'm just not ready to bet against Apple. I think we're at the point where the only way for anyone to take any significant chunk of profit from Apple's [growing] core business, is for Apple to have a couple significant missteps.

how do you define significant? As far as I can tell they did have a couple missteps (Apple TV, Ping) already.

None of those missteps are on their core products. I'm talking something like Xbox 360's 33% failure rate (which doesn't even seem to have damaged their brand at all, surprisingly).

At this point, their brand is so strong, you'd need something huge...I can't even think of anything besides serious failure rates on iPhones or iPads.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#25

Post by dafarian »

Apple has 75% of the tablet market, Samsung is gaining quickly as a formidable competitor (specially after the Apple/Samsung European showdown which gave more exposure to the compatibility of Samsung).

Amazon might throw a lot of money at it, but my money is on Samsung & Apple battling it out. I think Amazon is doing this because Apple shut them out from their App store.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#27

Post by tybris »

latch wrote: post #19

I'm just not ready to bet against Apple. I think we're at the point where the only way for anyone to take any significant chunk of profit from Apple's [growing] core business, is for Apple to have a couple significant missteps.

Why? I don't see the precedent. Android phones are overtaking iPhones. Why wouldn't Android tablets?

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#28

Post by tybris »

jacques_chester wrote: post #23
itswindy wrote: post #2

"With the tablet, Amazon is a follower. That’s never as good." Unless you sell it for half a price is good enough for most people.

> ... Amazon is a follower. That’s never as good. I guess this is why Friendster have crushed MySpace and Facebook in turn.

Did you look that up on Excite or on Altavista?

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#29

Post by j_col »

saurik wrote: post #12
greendestiny wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly use my Touchpad for email. Some web browsing. Games for the kids. I plan to install android when I can though. All platforms have decent email experiences, web browsing on a tablet is actually highly overrated. Its really native apps that differentiate the experience, and its native apps that can be a joy to use.

FWIW, the Touchpad's (WebOS) browser is even worse than the Android browser (even Google often fails to render in it, since they released Google+, yielding horribly hilarious results); if you were using Android or iOS you might not feel the same away about browsing on the tablet being "highly overrated".

Except for Flash, which in my eperience is consistently excellent on the Touchpad browser, much better than the browsers on the Android tablets I've tried, and as for iOS, well Flash really isn't an "issue"...

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#30

Post by mmahemoff »

atldev wrote: post #3

I'm hoping Amazon will have a pretty good hook. I want to be excited to buy one. However, the kindle book offering is not enough. I love the kindle, but the kindle app is already fantastic on the iPad. So I don't need a new kindle tablet. Give me something new, Amazon. Or open up the developer program and let us help you.

If you have an iPad already, you're not Amazon's primary target. That said, the 7" "mini-tablet" form factor might be one hook. It's actually a great size, great for reading, and I like taking mine to meetups where I just want web access and a little twitter. 7" tablets also fit in handbags and more pockets than most people realize (like back pocket of most of my jeans!).

Up to now, these devices have mostly been way too expensive - close to iPad prices - or cheapo devices (apad/hipad) with serious shortcomings, e.g. No Android market and ancient versions of the OS. In my case, I paid £160 for a device with poor quality control, had to return it as the wifi was broken. I changed my Google password a while ago, which broke Market and GMail and means I have to hard-reset in order to install any new apps. (There was no error message from those programs and had to trawl through forums to work out why there exiting immediately.) So tne 7" devices today have not exactly provided the out-of-the-box iPad experience.

"it's all about the software" as many hardware people say these days. If Amazon can build a smooth user interface, it will be the first inexpensive mini-tablet which "just works".

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