Amazon To Release "iPad Killer" Later This Year?
May 3, 2011
Amazon.com is likely to release a touchscreen tablet to take on the iPad, according to Taiwan-based DigiTimes. The unnamed device, which would include a full color LCD screen is likely to debut later this year.
Unlike its current line of Kindle e-book devices, which use black and white e-ink technology, Amazon’s tablet would include fringe field switching technology.
What is this? According to Wikipedia:
Known as fringe field switching (FFS) until 2003,[17] advanced fringe field switching is a technology similar to IPS or S-IPS offering superior performance and colour gamut with high luminosity. AFFS is developed by Hydis Technologies Co.,Ltd, Korea (formally Hyundai Electronics, LCD Task Force).[18] AFFS-applied notebook applications minimize colour distortion while maintaining its superior wide viewing angle for a professional display. Colour shift and deviation caused by light leakage is corrected by optimizing the white gamut which also enhances white/grey reproduction.The Digitimes says Taiwan-based notebook maker Quanta Computer has already received OEM orders from Amazon for the project. They believe up to 800,000 units have been ordered, with an expected ship date of sometime in the second half of 2011. Amazon’s tablet will likely be Android-based considering the company’s recent introduction of its Android Appstore. This means the tablet would naturally have to ability to use apps. However, those details were not mentioned in the Digitimes’ report. The color tablet’s arrival (a Kindle Color?) would come after Barnes & Noble recently updated its e-book reader, the Nook Color, to include Android OS 2.2/Froyo and its own Nook Apps store. We believe that Amazon's goal, however, isn't to take on the Nook, but rather Apple and its market-leading iPad 2. What do you think? Leave your comments below.
