Amazon’s Tablet: The iPad’s Biggest Threat

[Waqas 48]

Amazon’s tablet, reportedly named the Kindle Fire, could be the first Android device to effectively challenge Apple’s iPad. Or it could end up as just another over-hyped, under-performing tablet steamrolled by the Apple juggernaut.

With less than 36 hours until Amazon officially unveils its device, it’s hard to say which way things will go. But I do know what factors will make a difference.

Ultimately, it’s a question of how much Amazon has in common with Apple. If they have enough of the same DNA, that fact may separate the color Kindle apart from every other Android tablet on the market — and give Cupertino a run for its money.

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Apple’s Ecosystem

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When Apple launched its powerhouse iPad tablet (almost two years ago), there was no questioning the excellent industrial design; it instantly put every potential tablet manufacturer on notice. Still, good looks alone don’t account for the iPad’s now dominant market position. Apple had actually spent years building and priming its tablet market long before delivering the iPad.

Like the iPhone and iPod before it, the iPad plugged into a powerful Apple ecosystem. This is a digital world that began a decade ago with the introduction of iTunes (Apple called it “Jukebox Software†in 2001).

Ten months later, Apple launched the perfect iTunes companion: the iPod. Obviously, the marriage was planned. It was a perfect union that single-handedly revived the moribund MP3-player market. Not since the days of Wintel (the collaboration between Microsoft Windows and Intel-based PCs) that began almost 20 years ago had hardware and software been designed in such a complementary manner.

With the arrival of the AppStore for the iPod and iPhone in 2008, Apple’s ecosystem was complete. The wildly popular application destination became the template for all future hosted application services, though none have been quite as successful as the original. By the time the iPad arrived in 2010, the AppStore was filled with hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps. More importantly, some developers, despite giving Apple a 30% cut, were getting rich.

Today, there are almost half a million iPhone and iPod apps. In the space of less than two years, there are almost 100,000 iPad apps. I don’t know exactly how many Android tablet apps there are, but I do know that any time I’ve used an Android tablet, I have a heck of a time finding decent Android tablet apps (there are thousands of excellent Android phone apps). Tablet developers are clearly building their iPad versions first and, given the 25 millions iPads already sold, likely achieving their greatest success on the iOS platform.

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Amazon Kindle’s Difference

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On the one hand, Amazon’s supposedly stylish 7-inch Android tablet (if you go by TechCrunch’s hands-on with a prototype), enters a crowded field of similar Android tablets. But Amazon, like Apple, has spent years building a foundation for its own hardware/software ecosystem. Take, for example, the Kindle’s free and completely integrated 3G technology, Whispernet. This pioneering network technology allows you to buy and consume books wherever you are.

Amazon has one big advantage over virtually every other Android Tablet manufacturer: it understand user interfaces. No other competitor, aside from Apple, runs such an active and varied website for consumers. The Seattle-based retailer has been perfecting Amazon.com’s interface for 16 years. When Amazon was just books, it was pretty straightforward — but as the company added other product categories, it struggled to find an rational interface metaphor. Even so, Amazon was the acknowledged leader in the space. When it introduced tabs, all other online retail sites tried them as well.

Today, Amazon.com is a rich and usable retail site, one that often serves as the check-out counter for brick and mortar outlets. When Amazon launched its own hardware, it did not try to recreate the website in a six-inch interface (a trick it may have learned from Apple). It focused on how to make finding, reading and organizing books as easy as possible on the limited e-ink interface.

This kind of restraint would bode well for a 7-inch, back-lit, color Kindle Fire. Most Android Tablets, even the ones running Google’s tablet-ready Honeycomb interface, are too ready to show you their geeky underbellies. Apple’s iPad aptly shields users from that kind of experience, and I believe Amazon will do the same. The interface should be purpose-driven — clear and clean, with access to your library of Kindle books, movies to rent and stream, DRM-free music and a relatively short list of Android Tablet apps.

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Retail Advantage

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Amazon also understands the retail space better than some of the manufacturers who delivered under-performing, over-priced Android tablets. The supposed entry level price for the Kindle Fire is $250, which will turn a lot of heads. Amazon could be selling these tablets at something very near a loss. When iSupply tore down the similar 7-inch Galaxy tab, they found $205 worth of materials — which does not count in the cost of labor.

But I doubt Amazon cares if it takes a small loss on the tablets. They’ll be putting a fully functional, Internet and media-ready portal to all of its products in the hands of millions of existing customers. (How many people do you know who do not have an Amazon account?)

Even Apple’s iTunes store can’t offer the product variety Amazon customers will find on the Kindle Fire. Amazon sweetens the deal with its Amazon Prime service, a unique $79-per-year offering that bundles streaming content with free shipping on all Amazon purchases That’s something no other tablet competitor can match at the moment.

The Kindle Fire could also help all Android tablets solve their biggest problem: a dearth of tablet-specific apps. If developers see millions of new Android customers arriving through Amazon’s App Store (yes, it has one), they may actually consider developing for the Android platform first. It’s a long shot, I know, and there are countless other factors at work in the battle for table dominance. Yet the Kindle Fire is the probably best matched contender we’ll see this year. I expect it to come out swinging.

What do you think? Does the Amazon Kindle Tablet stand a chance? Let us know in the comments.

This post reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of Mashable as a publication.

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