Amazon's Android Tablet Expected This Fall

According to the New York Post — among many others — Amazon is expected to launch its long-anticipated color tablet in late September or October, and the device is slated to sell for 'hundreds less' than the iPad, which implies a price of $300 or less. MSNBC says much the same, but adds some (their words) "generic looking mockups" to illustrate. I expect millions of Kindle owners will happily skip the added weight and shorter battery life of a full-fledged tablet, but it's good to have options.

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Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you tried it. I have a tablet... and I NEVER read books on it. I always read the on the Kindle - the screen is just so much better, it's the right size, and I rarely if ever think about the battery. It's like a paper book with pages that magically rewrite themselves.

I'm sometimes loathe to admit it - but with the Kindle 3 Amazon really got it right. It's the first ereader I've seen that I would consider a replacement for a book - for like, normal, people and not tech-head weirdos like me.

Re:What about...

[Karlt1]

Apple insists on a very large profit margin. They can be underpriced by someone with the money to commit to large volume production.

Yes, Apple does enjoy it's profit margin, but that doesn't mean that anyone else can make an equivalent device cheaper and at a profit, Apple has a number of things going for them that no one else has.

1 - Buying power. Apple has been the largest consumer of flash memory since around the time that the first Nano came out. Not to mention the buying power from using a lot of the same hardware across multiple devices and selling more than any other single company (iPads+iPhones+iPod Touches and to a lesser extent Macs).

2. Huge cash reserves -- Apple can invest billions in other companies and buy out all of their capcity for year.

3. Apple retail stores/online store (not a problem for Amazon obviously). Apple captures the wholesale and the retail markup for many of its products. Besides when you walk into an Apple store there is no competition from other companies -- unlike Best Buy or even Amazon.