You won’t believe how much Amazon’s next tablet might cost
Amazon is aiming for the rock bottom with one of its upcoming devices. According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, the retailing giant is planning to unveil a $50 tablet before the start of the holiday shopping season.
The tablet would offer a 6-inch screen, just a little bigger than the iPhone 6 Plus, and mostly be designed to provide basic streaming video.
Currently, the lowest cost Amazon tablet is the pictured 6-inch edition of the Fire HD tablet, which retails for $99. That version includes advertisements as screen savers and runs a forked version of Android.
How low can they go?
As you can imagine, a $50 tablet would come with some steep tradeoffs. The story says that the tablet would only feature a mono speaker instead of stereo version. And I suspect the tablet would also be woefully underpowered compared to other modern devices.
But a $50 tablet wouldn’t be extremely out of character from Amazon. Instead of making large profits from the sale of devices, Amazon usually sells their tablets and e-readers at near cost and focuses on making money from the sale of e-books, videos, and other items.
Apple is heading in the other direction
While Amazon is heading in one direction, Apple is seemingly going the opposite way with its new iPad lineup.
At tomorrow’s special media event in San Francisco, the company is widely expected to unveil the long-rumored “iPad Pro” featuring a 12.9-inch screen and targeted toward a more professional audience.
We should also get a look at the fourth-generation iPad mini with a faster processor capable of supporting the powerful multitasking gestures in iOS 9.
An “iPad Air 3” isn’t expected to arrive until next year.
While I think Amazon is capable of making fun and innovative products, like the extremely handy and capable Echo speaker, I’ll be interested to see if its $50 tablet is actually worth the small price.
For other news today, see: JP Morgan: Revamped TV could add 3.3 percent to Apple’s 2016 earnings, Help celebrate 20 years as you buy and sell with eBay 4.0, and Verizon is looking to the future with its super-fast 5G wireless technology.
