There has been growing speculation of late that Amazon will be releasing a new tablet device onto the commercial market. According to several sites the new device is to be revealed within the next few weeks. There have even been product descriptions written up about the device and the hype has been building considerably. It is also rumoured that the Amazon tablet will run Android and could be the first tablet device to run this OS that poses a real threat to the iPad.
According to descriptions so far the Amazon tablet will feature a 7 inch touchscreen, run a forked version of the Android operating system and cost around $250 with a UK price still unknown. Critics are already claiming that the new tablet computer could be the one that finally brings down the Apple iPad.
Firstly, aside from the huge brand name that Amazon has built up for itself it also has a fantastic reputation for tablet devices thanks to the ebook reader Kindle. Adding to this the company is one of the biggest to have such access to extensive amounts of content online. This enables them to offer services to customers from a wide range of industries and tailor them specifically for the Amazon tablet.
The second reason is that it is actually one of the ten biggest merchant holders of credit card numbers in the entire world. This puts them alongside the likes of Paypal, Sony, eBay and Microsoft. One company that is conspicuously not on this list is Google. As a matter of fact the site has very little financial relationship directly with its users. This means that (like iTunes) many customers use Amazon purely as their online shopping hub. For example they might use the tablet device to purchase ebooks, music, films and apps all at once. Something that rivals such as Acer, Samsung and Asus don’t have, this is likely the reason they failed where Amazon might succeed.
