Amazon’s first Android tablet will launch this coming November at a price point significantly below Apple’s entry-level iPad 2, TechCrunch reported on Friday. According to the site, which claims to have handled a prototype of the device, the Amazon tablet bears a strong resemblance to RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook and it runs a highly customized pre-Honeycomb version of Google’s Android operating system. It also features deep integration with various Amazon services such as the Amazon Appstore and Amazon’s Cloud Player service. All of this has already been reported, however. Read on for more.
In terms of new details, the biggest pieces of the puzzle the report adds are the name of the device — simply “Amazon Kindle” — and the price: $250. In other words, it looks like Amazon will adopt a strategy similar to Barnes & Noble’s, offering a low-end black and white eReader alongside a more sophisticated tablet device, but its tablet will seemingly be much more capable than the current Nook Color model. Amazon will also significantly undercut Apple’s iPad tablet, which starts at $499.
TechCrunch reports that Amazon intends to offer its
BGR exclusively reported in May that Amazon was working on a pair of Android tablets, a 7-inch entry-level “Coyote” slate and a larger 10-inch “Hollywood” tablet that is reportedly slated for release next year. According to TechCrunch, the 10-inch tablet is still in the works but it will only be release if Amazon finds success with its initial offering.
