Amazon tablet incoming? no comments
Lately there has been a resurgence of speculation that an Amazon tablet is imminent. This has been fueled in part by the launch of the Amazon Appstore for Android and the ongoing job openings listed for Lab 126 that would seem to indicate that Amazon is working on an Android device.
While I have no doubt that an Amazon tablet is indeed in the works, I don’t see it happening soon. A tablet from Amazon will be not just another me-too Android tablet; it will be a Kindle Tablet. This means it will not only be capable of video playback, running apps and doing the other things we expect a tablet to do, it will also be optimized for ereading — which means something other than a backlit LCD display.
The most likely display candidate would seem to be Mirasol. According to various reports, some stemming from comments dropped by Qualcomm staff working on the Mirasol project, Mirasol-based products should have been on the market by now. Last year I very over optimistically wrote that I expected we would probably have a color Kindle in the first part of this year, in part based on these reports. Obviously that was a bad call.
The most recent news that feels real to me (and is backed up by another Qualcomm press release) was that a Mirasol production facility was finally going to be equipped for mass production in the final quarter of this year and would then finally start producing Mirasol displays in quantity in early 2012. This facility, which was originally announced in a Qualcomm press release almost two years ago, has apparently only been capable of producing sample quantities until this upgrade. Reliable production of a sufficient quantity of displays will be required to meet the demand a Kindle Tablet would engender, and Amazon would not be the only device maker standing in line for the new reflective displays.
So, barring any further delays, it looks to me now as if sometime in the first half of next year will be the soonest a Kindle tablet will be shipping, although it might be announced by the end of this year and even possibly available for pre-order during the holidays. I hope I am being very overly pessimistic this time — I would love to have an Amazon tablet in my hands as soon as possible.
By the way, here is an intriguing possibility for the Kindle Tablet: Currently in the Amazon Appstore for Android you can get not only the Kindle app but also ereading apps from Kobo and Wattpad. There is no Nookbook app, although B&N may just not have submitted one yet. I wouldn’t hold my breath though — not only are Amazon and Barnes & Noble arch-competitors who share no love (but have exchanged lawsuits); B&N would look bad if their app was included in the Appstore and they did not reciprocate by having other reading apps available for the Nook Color when more apps are made available for it.
But the point is, if an Amazon Kindle Tablet were released tomorrow it appears that users would be able to not only use it practically off the shelf to read ebooks from the Kindle Store; they would also be able to access ebooks from at least some of the other ebook sellers. This makes sense, as any Amazon tablet powered by Android would probably be quickly rooted and given access to the Android Market and the ereading apps to be had therein anyway.
