Buzz about Amazon tablet
Company expected to launch new Kindle product today
NEW YORK – Amazon is expected to unveil a tablet computer today, picking a fight with Apple Inc. and its iPad. The iPad has many challengers, but analysts say Amazon’s could be different – it has a chance to be more than a wannabe.
Amazon.com Inc. is nearly unique in its ability to sell content such as e-books, movies and music suited for a tablet, just like Apple does. In addition, the “Kindle” tablet could be a reminder, right in the owner’s hands, to buy general merchandise from Amazon. Running out of toilet paper? Just add it to your Amazon shopping cart.
“In essence, the Kindle is a Trojan horse for Amazon’s retail and media brands,” said Morgan Keegan analyst Justin Patterson.
Seattle-based Amazon hasn’t confirmed that it’s launching a tablet, but it’s holding an event in New York this morning, with its CEO Jeff Bezos speaking.
With the iPad, Apple has created a whole new product category of tablet computers. Many have tried to copy its success, but so far, the iPad is the only really successful product. Apple sold 28.7 million of them from April 2010 to June. Analysts at research firm Gartner Inc. expect the iPad to account for three out of four tablet sales this year.
Analysts expect Amazon to subsidize the cost of the tablet on the expectation that it will make the money back when owners buy things through the tablet. That might allow the company to undercut Apple on price, something other manufacturers have had a hard time doing. Apple’s profit margin on the iPad, which starts at $499, is lower than it is for many of its other products, particularly the iPhone.
“Amazon’s willingness to sell hardware at a loss, combined with the strength of its brand, content, cloud infrastructure, and commerce assets, makes it the only credible iPad competitor in the market,” wrote Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.
Epps believes Amazon can sell from 3 million to 5 million tablets in the fourth quarter. That compares with Apple selling 9.3 million iPads in the April to June period.
The question is: What unique features can Amazon bundle into its tablet that might compel consumers to choose it over an iPad? There’s not that much an Amazon tablet could do that the iPad can’t. The iPad can be used to read books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, even if Apple’s restrictions now make it harder to buy books directly from these stores. It can be used for general shopping from Amazon.
On the application side, the Amazon tablet will start out at a big disadvantage. It might be able to run tablet apps from Google’s marketplace, but both the selection and quality are lower than in Apple’s store.