Tablets
The iPad 2 has been an outstanding sensation over the last year. And HP made huge news when they decided to get rid of all their tablet computing division, and suddenly their tablets were cut to $99 during the close-out sale at retailers like Best Buy. But watch out: there may be one more huge surprise coming very soon.
Amazon.com is getting ready to release their new Kindle Tablet before the end of 2011. It will differ from the old Kindle in that it will be a backlit screen, and it will not have the e-ink applications. But it will be in color. It is expected to be a 2-finger touch type screen instead of a 10-finger touch type. (No pictures exist as yet at the writing of this post.)
Will it be an iPad killer? Most probably not. For all the new gloss and basic changes, the Kindle Tablet will still be a Kindle. In other words, primarily an e-reader.
Although when you factor in the lower cost - expected to be below $400 - you never know how much competition it will give the iPad. The main thing about the iPad is that it is larger and has a larger range of computing options. But several factors should be noted:
Amazon has said they want to release a 10 inch version in early 2012, which will put it in direct competition with the iPad.
20% of the world's population visits Amazon.com's site every month. That's 1 BILLION+ people per month (although the same billion keep coming back, presumably, month after month).
Amazon has one of the best promotional machines on their websites available. They were able to turn the Kindle into their biggest selling item in record time - largely because they can promote the heck out of it to a BILLION people per month.
Don't forget the fact that if Amazon sees they're doing extremely well, they can probably cut costs to sweeten the deal even more. Apple has always existed (and done very well) in the upper stratosphere of costs; Macs and Airbooks cost thousands of dollars, the iPads have barely budged off their initial prices, and Apple never seems to cut their prices more than 5% or so. Contrast that with Amazon, who has continually tried to cut the price of the Kindle, going so far as to produce an ad-serving version for extremely cheap.
If Amazon smells the blood in the water, you can bet they'll do their darndest to get prices below the magic pricepoint - which HP has shown is $99. It might take a while, but Amazon will cut prices to ensure market domination; Apple is content to be the Mercedes Benz of the computing world, relying on the cachet of their products.
But with Steve Jobs gone, can Apple continue its domination of the computing world?
Amazon.com is surely going to try and put that to the test.