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Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

nytimes.com

31–40 of 64 posts

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#31
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... 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?

A friend on ICQ told me to check it out on his .plan file website.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#32
post #27
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?

humm..it's a bit like saying that your chance of building a successful search engine, without Google first doing something incredibly stupid, are pretty slim.

There's a billion precedents. GM, 3dfx, pre-tick-tock Intel, George Lucas.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#33
post #4

Maybe v2 will be webOS? One can dream, no?

It's funny that the general incompetence of HP's new leader is one of the factors which led to Amazon's success over the years, especially with third-party suppliers. Unless they arranged to buy the OS outright (very unlikely given their existing commitments), we won't see it.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#34
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…

>>That said, the 7" "mini-tablet" form factor might be one hook. It's actually a great size, great for reading

I get that 7" works for reading literature and has better portability. That is Amazon's home market.

The problem is that 7" makes full document reading (pdf, web pages, code, etc) hard.

I'd pay for an 12" iPad, since my eyes are older than 40. (-: Maybe I need a fresnel lens, Brazil style? :-)

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#36
post #27
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?

There's no reason to think Android tablets wont overtake the iPad in future. However, the key difference between the tablet and smartphone spaces is that the masses recognise there are smartphones other than the iPhone.

Apple created the tablet market, and consumers know it. The iPhone had a big impact on the smartphone market, but it didn't create it.

Apple earned itself 6-12 months of 100% ownership of the tablet market. People don't yet understand that there are any tablets apart from the iPad. Or, if they do, there will be a belief that the Android tablets are crap because they know that they're just following the success of the iPad.

I think it will take another two or three years before we start seeing tablets become a commodity, as the market begins to recognise the other tablets out there. Or, if this Amazon tablet is a success, then they might be a commodity by next Christmas :)

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#37
post #32
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

humm..it's a bit like saying that your chance of building a successful search engine, without Google first doing something incredibly stupid, are pretty slim. There's a billion precedents. GM, 3dfx, pre-tick-tock Intel, George Lucas.

The problem with going up against Google is that they offer a superior product to end-users for free. I have no doubt that the iPad will remain a superior product to the Amazon Tablet. However, I also have no doubt it will keep costing more than the Amazon tablet. Consumers care about that extra ~$250.

Like Google, the iPad is currently the low-end and the high-end of the market, but unlike Google, it's vulnerable on the low-end. That's where Amazon will attack it and with ~100 million customers, their credit card numbers ready to go, good brand-loyalty, a huge content store, and so much experience in on-line/cloud services that even Apple uses them, they'll likely have quite a bit of success.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#38
post #26

Apple sells movies, music and books in order to sell devices. Amazon sells devices in order to sell books, movies and music. This.

Obvious follow up: then why not let Apple sell the devices and Amazon sell the content?

Because Apple want a 30% cut of all content sold via the iPad, which represents a larger margin than Amazon can afford to give away whilst remaining a profitable distributor.

Re: Amazon Has High Hopes for Its iPad Competitor

#40
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.

I have a Kindle and iPad and use them for different things, I found the iPad isn't very good for book reading, it's too heavy, too bright and the battery life isn't good enough. On the other hand I can read from the kindle just like I would read from a paperback.

The only thing I would like to see from Amazon is a larger display version that is suitable for technical books.

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