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Amazon Media Event Set for September 28th, Tablet Announcement Expected

aohus said:
funny how people are crapping on Amazon, the biggest online retailer on the planet.

don't underestimate Jeff Bezos. Thats all im sayin.
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Amazon became the "enemy" here the day Apple sued them over the appstore trademark. 😉 Some people on this forum operate in this kind of frame of mind. Don't mind them too much.
 
At the risk of being downvoted for this - I'll also add that there are plenty of people (as we know) who aren't fans of Apple or their products. And certainly there are people that actively seek out alternatives to what Apple offers. If for no other reason - Amazon's offering could very well capture that market and do very well.
 
pmz said:
It's not free...you have to buy a truly cripple and inferior product, and actually use it. I don't consider that free.
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I don't think it's crippled and inferior. It's different. It serves a different purpose, is all. I've used iBooks on an iPad and an iPhone, and I've used my Kindle, they are all excellent at what they do, but they excel in different times and places.

If you were saying the web browsing itself is crippled and inferior, well, sure, but it's free. If I need to Google the location of the nearest <insert whatever here> as well as find its store hours and phone number, it does the job just fine. I had to do that several times on my most recent trip to the US.

My provider, Fido, charges data roaming at 3 cents per KILOBYTE (that's $31 per megabyte) to browse the web on my iPhone while in the US. That's patently ridiculous. I'd gladly take crippled and free over that.
 
KingCrimson said:
Apple doesn't roll that way. They are the most self-motivated company ever. They play by their own rules, their own aesthetics, their own values. There is no "competition" per se with Apple. Never really was. They are only competing with their own sense of perfectionism in everything.
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*LTD* couldn't have said it better.
 
Amazon is the one company on the planet that could present a credible alternative to the iPad. I say alternative rather than threat, because I think the iPad will not suffer in growth or sales much if any. I think Amazon's tablet is much more likely to eat away at other Android tablets. I *am* excited to see it though just to see what they came up with knowing what they know about how the other tablets makers have done in the market. Who knows, if the price is low enough, I may even buy one.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_10 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E600 Safari/6533.18.5)

I just want a touch screen, color e-ink ereader. I don't want apps, or games, or Internet, or a shinny LCD screen. E INK!
 
KingCrimson said:
LOL - true enough. But how do you refute that view? Just looking at Apple the last few years seems to indicate that they are leaders, not followers.
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maybe not always

stevejobswwdc2011liveblogkeynote0641.jpg
 
Gah! I just saw "Media Event" as I glanced over the screen. My heart sunk when I realized it was just some stupid Amazon tablet. Boo.
 
Amazon has nearly 4 years of experience selling Kindles - which give stem a pretty good set of data to understanding buying and use habits.

They aren't trying to take on the iPad - I think they see a significant number of potential buyers for a device that can act as an eReader and entertainment device and moved to fill it. Will it steal some iPad sales - probably; but that's not the real target market.
Amazon wants to extend the reach of their eco-system and attract new users for a broader range of services than the currently offer to Kindle users. At $250 it's a lot more of an impulse buy than the iPad. This is the first step towards moving the Kindle into the entertainment delivery realm. As Amazon adds content the Kindle becomes the purchasing portal; enabling Amazon to move further into content delivery. Add HDMI and now you have a way to deliver a full screen experience. Prime already boasts a small but growing set of "free with Prime subscription" video content; the Kindle provides a cheap way to access it.
The 3G delay is probably due to a carrier's reluctance to sell bandwidth that will be used for streaming, which, unlike the current book download and limited surfing model used today, could significantly tax their networks as people use the "free" 3G. Once Amazon and the carriers figure it out we'll probably see a 3 or 4G model.
make no mistake - this isn't aimed at the iPad - it's a shot at the far more lucrative eco-system around the iPad.
 
For the briefest fraction of a second, when the page loaded and I read "Please Join Us" my heart smiled. Then I saw Amazon. Sigh.
 
Adidas Addict said:
You better visit your doctor.
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Or consider coming out of the closet.

tigres said:
Lemme guess.
You don't like Amazon either.🙄
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Well, it's not Apple, so why would he like it?

dinjin201 said:
While apple has nothing to fear from this, I wonder what will happen to all those other failing android tablets if amazon releases something that costs less AND works well.

Keep in mind that Amazon's tablet will either steal market from existing android tablets or entire people who just hate apple. The iPad is so widespread, that everyone who is looking to buy a new tablet will look at the iPad first. Then, they will look elsewhere. The only people who would be interested in Amazon's tablet are those who hate apple or are switching from other android devices. And even then, statistics indicate that android users are 3 times as likely to change brands (i.e., not stick to android). I do not see it as a threat to apple's iPad, but I'm interested to see how this plays out.
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I take it you're not or weren't a business or marketing major?
 
I am very curious about this announcement. I think the reaction will come mostly from the price than the specs.

Right now, the price of tablets are like when HDTV's and Blu-ray players first came out. Expensive. Over time, prices will drop. Remember when the first iPod cost $400-$500? That was just a frickin' mp3 player with 5GB-10GB of storage! Or when the first iPhone cost $500-$600 WITH contract? This is what happens when Apple takes over. They call the shots and it seems others are blind enough to follow anything they do. For $500, I will always take a new laptop with far greater storage and can open spreadsheets correctly over a tablet or netbook. But there is like 1.5 billion people who already own a personal computer that the market has become saturated while tablets are still new and "fresh" to most people.

I am hoping Amazon ignites a price war vs other competitors minus Apple. It is ridiculous to see Android tablets at the same price as iPad 2 when they have less apps for any useful functions other than playing games or watching videos. It is just that people are going for crazy for anything touchscreen right now after the success of the iPhone. This created another halo effect for the iPad to succeed since people wanted a bigger screen for iOS.

I generally do like Amazon. They are the biggest online retailer in the world, have fair prices, and people post good reviews for them. Amazon is currently ranked as the 15th most visited website on the internet. They are going in as underdogs but this tablet could be a surprise hit. Amazon sold as much as 8 MILLION Kindles last year. A e-Book reader with no color or backlight. This is with really not much experience with selling their own tangible hardware. They made a e-Book reader business into a potential $6B industry by 2012. If Amazon can sell even over a 1M of these tablets for $250 by this year, that is already better than BlackBerry PlayBook or Motorola Xoom . And they didn't need a fire sale like what HP did to the TouchPad to move hardware. There is nothing wrong being #2 and taking over the midrange market if it can drop the median average for touchscreen tablets much lower. A half-ass computer should cost half the price of a real one.

By selling it for $250, this is a reason why some of us like Amazon in the first place - REASONABLE PRICING.
 
KnightWRX said:
Amazon became the "enemy" here the day Apple sued them over the appstore trademark. 😉 Some people on this forum operate in this kind of frame of mind. Don't mind them too much.
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I think you are a little off. It was as soon as Apple released the iPad which the kindled remotely competed against.

From there it just got worse.
 
product26 said:
how is this apple related?
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I'm used to this question from people who have joined in the last few months, but you've been around for a while. I'm sure by now you've figured out that MR posts stories about companies other than Apple when it could have an impact on Apple in some way. It's been that way since I joined.
 
Savor said:
Amazon sold as much as 8 MILLION Kindles last year.
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Why is it with Apple they give you the exact amount of iPads sold and nobody doubts them, but all these other OEMs give figures you can't trust? I don't believe for a second Amazon sold 8 million Kindles in a year.
 
notjustjay said:
I don't think it's crippled and inferior. It's different. It serves a different purpose, is all. I've used iBooks on an iPad and an iPhone, and I've used my Kindle, they are all excellent at what they do, but they excel in different times and places.

If you were saying the web browsing itself is crippled and inferior, well, sure, but it's free. If I need to Google the location of the nearest <insert whatever here> as well as find its store hours and phone number, it does the job just fine. I had to do that several times on my most recent trip to the US.

My provider, Fido, charges data roaming at 3 cents per KILOBYTE (that's $31 per megabyte) to browse the web on my iPhone while in the US. That's patently ridiculous. I'd gladly take crippled and free over that.
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The Kindle is OK at being a book reader. I wouldn't say it's great at it. The iPad is in fact great at it.

The iPad is also great at thousands of other functions and uses. The Kindle is not.

Today, I don't think there is much room for dedicated stand alone products. We are in the area of do-everything products....which will continue until certain technologies and parts become cheap....at which point we'll return to one product/one function.
 
oh oh. it has something similar to cover flow from iTunes.

i foresee another lawsuit (just kidding...making fun of the insane amount of lawsuits back and forth between apple and it's competitors).

interested to see this device and how it stacks up.
 
KingCrimson said:
Why is it with Apple they give you the exact amount of iPads sold and nobody doubts them, but all these other OEMs give figures you can't trust? I don't believe for a second Amazon sold 8 million Kindles in a year.
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Why? I know way more people with Kindles than iPads. I got two, one for both of my parents for their anniversary and I own one myself.
 
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