Peter Rojas has a post at gdgt.com laying out why he thinks Amazon is building an Android tablet and Samsung is building it. His reasoning basically comes down to that, considering Amazon’s expansions into an Android app store and multimedia/cloud services, it makes sense to come out with a device made to use with those the way the Kindle was made to use with e-books. It could also compete with B&N’s Nook Color, which has reportedly been selling pretty well so far.
On ReadWriteWeb, Sarah Perez takes a look at Rojas’s reasoning, noting that he is a seasoned tech reporter with industry connections, so if he’s hearing rumors about Android launching a tablet they’re probably coming from credible sources. Perez thinks Rojas’s predictions seem reasonable, including the idea that the device will run a customized version of Android rather than plain-vanilla Honeycomb.
On the other hand, The Digital Reader’s Nate Hoffelder still thinks an Amazon Android tablet is unlikely. He points out that if Amazon had wanted to get more into the hardware business, it could have created its own set-top box for playing video rather than farming it out to Roku, or had a company like Archos build it a multimedia device. Since they haven’t done so yet, why would they do so now?
I tend to think that Apple’s impending app store restrictions would seem to make coming up with their own tablet solution attractive to Amazon. And Barnes & Noble’s moves in that direction have been a success so far. Why wouldn’t Amazon want to carve out a piece of that market before Barnes & Noble gets it all? And the fact that Kindle for Android is now tailored for tablet computers seems to add a little weight to the theory, too.
Amazon has nothing to gain by getting into the Android tablet space. It already has a great Android e-reader app which leverages sales of ebooks in the Kindle format. The ONLY reason for Amazon to launch a follow-on on the Kindle 3 is to extend its reading experience; simply selling an Android based tablet does not do that.
Amazon might release something like the Mirasol colour technology offering colour, without a need for video, delivering magazines, photo books, and text books … and long battery life with excellent contrast in sunlight. This would be especially welcome in a DX format factor and, if it efficiently took notes, could be a killer device, especially at a price point between b&w eink and entry level tablets.
I am not saying this is what Amazon would do: just trying to show an example of doing something different but extending the current reading experience. Simply releasing a Samsung variant of its Galaxy Tab adds nothing.
Yay Danboard!