Amazon Kindle Store

Amazon is expected to launch an Android tablet in September or October. The company is well positioned to make money off its Amazon Appstore for Android apps, Amazon MP3 music service, Kindle eBook store and other digital media properties, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Amazon sell its tablet near or even below cost.

The New York Post reports that the Amazon tablet will launched for “hundreds less than an entry-point $499 iPad.” In other words, if the Post’s source is to believed, the device will likely sell for $299 or even less.

Apple’s iPad currently dominates the consumer tablet space, but as HP recently showed, consumers are willing to spend money on a competing tablet… as long as it’s not too much money. The HP TouchPad didn’t sell very well at $499, but when the price dropped to $99 stores had a hard time keeping it in stock.

I doubt Amazon is going to sell a tablet for as little as $99 when the Amazon Kindle eReader sells for $139. But at $299, the company might be able to sway a few potential iPad buyers. At $199 the company could also probably fend off competition from competitors including Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and even budget device makers such as Archos.

via BGR

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5 replies on “Amazon tablet to sell for $299 or less?”

  1. You get what you pay for. A $299 device will most likely not be a legitimate iPad competitor, and definitely not an iPad killer.

    1. Mind that unlike Apple, Amazon could be willing to sell at a loss because they can make profit to make up for it from the services they would be providing the tablet.

      Like Amazon’s video and music streaming services, etc.

      So this could be a better deal than you would normally expect for the price range.  The lower pricing also means it can appeal to those who find the iPad too expensive.  So even if not a iPad killer it may still potentially sell better than the other tablets released so far.

  2. I predict $199 to undercut the Nook Color. There’s no way Bezos will let Barnes and Noble undersell him.

    While the Nook isn’t technically being sold as a tablet, everyone knows that it basically is one, so Amazon has to match or beat it on price. And they will.

    1. The B&N Nook Color is nearly 2 years old now and needs to be rooted to get a full tablet experience.  So I seriously doubt Amazon would be even considering it competition.

      Besides, last heard it was only expected to be reduced in price by 20% – 25%.  Being a new product we can only expect them to lower the price by so much.  So depends on how much the tablet cost them to build in the first place and that partly depends on how powerful it’ll be.

      Though if initial sales are slow then they might lower prices temporarily to boost sales for the holiday season and make it up with after market sales for services they’ll be providing the tablet.

  3. If it is a real tablet and has Market on it, some of us will be interested.  But if it’s just locked into Amazon, who the hell needs it? 

    Of course, if it’s good hardware and the price is right, we could root it and load a better OS.  But if it’s just ordinarily . . . well . . . I already own a Nook Color that runs real well on Android 2.3. 

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