Motorola Targets Families With Xoom Tablet

Motorola announced yesterday that they will be selling a Xoom tablet that will be geared towards families.  It will go on sale starting Sunday and will be exclusive to Best Buy.  It will retail for $379 and is basically the same hardware that the Xoom has been sporting all along with one exception.  It will only be available in a 16GB model (instead of 32GB's).  Motorola also said the tablet will come preloaded with some family friendly apps as well.  Apparently, this isn't an ongoing offer as the announcement also points out that this will be a limited time offer.

It's no surprise that Motorola is doing this.  With the release of the Kindle Fire, most of the tablet manufacturers have been forced to play their hand at price cutting to keep their products as relevant as possible in the sea of cheaper tablets.  Hopefully, this will help Motorola's position in the tablet market.  The Motorola Xoom was the first Honeycomb tablet on the market and was awesome.  However, it didn't take long for competitors to overshadow the Xoom with other offerings.

read more

Kindle Fire sells how many preorders?!

As expected Amazon's Kindle Fire seems to have taken off; if nothing else, the pre-order numbers seem to look good for Amazon's tablet.  Sitting at 95,000 day one pre-orders!  And spinning the tech-retail world into a tailspin by kicking off what appears to be the first of the tablet price wars that I predicted a few months back to start hitting about now.  Is it just getting warmed up?

It's kind of funny that in the same week that Amazon announces the Kindle Fire, Best Buy drops the price of the HTC Flyer to $299.  Will the other tablet manufacturers follow suit in fear of the Kindle Fire?  Do I think the Kindle Fire will dethrown the iPad as the king of tablets?  Probably not, because Apple has enough money to ramp up ad campaigns and sell more of their devices too.

But as far as casual tablet buyers, looking for a basic entry level tablet to get them into mobile computing.  Yep, I think those people will definitely bypass the iPad.  But time will tell!

And word of advice, if you're looking to get a Kindle Fire before the end of the year, it might be a good idea to go ahead and pre-order with numbers like those.  It wouldn't surprise me at all to see a shortage of Kindle Fire tablets before they even hit the street.

read more

Yes, there are other Kindles too

Last week one of the biggest stories in the headlines covered Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet/e-reader.  But what seemed to fall through the cracks were the stories of what other Kindle's were also announced.  Amazon announced it will also be releasing two more versions of the monochrome Kindle r-readers for those who aren't ready for the tablet experience.

So what's new with these?  Well, they are still sporting the monochrome e-ink screen; but now they include multi-touch features as well.  One of the other changes about the Touch versions of the Kindle, is that user's will no longer have to 'swipe' their finger across the screen to turn the page of the ebook.  Instead, a simple screen tap will handle page turning as well.

For those who are curious as to what e-ink screens are: they are monochrome screens for mobile devices that allow no-glare visibility in daylight and brightly lit rooms.  They use no backlight; instead they use ambient light in the room to produce the vibrant image on the screen.  E-Ink screens are great on battery life due to the lack of a backlight necessary to light the display (unlike standard tablets).  One of the drawbacks to e-ink screens is that in low-light/dark rooms or areas; you will need to use a booklight (they make booklights that attach to most e-readers) to create ambient light in order to see the image on the screen.

There are two versions:
-Kindle Touch (WiFi) for $99 (USD)
-Kindle Touch 3G for $149 (USD)

You may want to note that the 3G version of the Kindle Touch will limit 3G access to the Kindle Store for buying ebooks and searching Wikipedia.  The 3G version does include WiFi access as well.

For more information on the new Kindle Touch swing by: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005890G8Y/ref=famstripe_kt

read more

A little more on the Amazon Kindle Fire

In this post we don't know anymore specific details on the device (or specific hardware contained therein); however, a recent study/teardown by HCS iSuppli reveals an interesting point to mention.  Looks like the cost to make the Kindle Fire Tablet is $209.63 (and this includes materials and manufacturing costs).  That's a loss of right around $10 dollars.

Wait a minute!  Amazon has set the price point at $199, so they are going to immediately take a loss?!  What kind of business plan is that?  Well, if you're expecting your devices to really take off, it's a genius business plan. The concept here isn't to make a bunch of money on a sale of a single device.  But to sell many of their new devices, and build profits by selling quantity.  Plus, I know some people personally who would buy it for the sole purpose of getting it cheaper than what is was manufactured for.

Not only will they make that $10 dollars or so back in the long run.  But they are selling digital goods for the devices.  Access to streaming media (if you go with Amazon Prime), apps, ebooks, etc.  And that extra $10 dollars lost in manufacturing will be more than recovered.

So it's a smart idea for Amazon.  By pricing the tablet at $199 they already have a jump on competition at being a modestly priced, reasonable tablet offering.  It will be interesting to see how it fares.

read more

Why will the Kindle Fire sell like crazy?

Amazon's Tablet Offering: Kindle Fire

With all of the rage in the tablet world right now buzzing around the announcement of Amazon's Kindle Fire, I wanted to discuss why Amazon's first attempt at a full fledged tablet will be a crazy success for them.  First up, is the price.  I mean for $200 bucks you get a fully functional tablet.  Now granted, it isn't a crazy powerful device but it is very practical for what it aims to do.  It's rocking a dual-core processor (not sure which one of speed); and only 8GB's of storage on the device itself.  And they are boasting about 8 hours of battery life.  All on a rather nice, and comfortable 7 inch screen.

What does the Kindle Fire not have?  Well, pretty much everything most tech folks look for in a tablet by the market standards nowadays.
-No 3G
-No expandable storage.
-No front or back cameras.
-No bluetooth.
-No HDMI
-And no GPS.

So, if it basically has a handful of features when compared with other tablets; why will it do so well?  In one, simple word: content.  What is one thing we all have in common, and we all soak as much of it up everyday as possible.  Whether it be news, internet sources, television, music, media, etc.  It is all considered some form of content.  And what better way could Amazon jump into the tablet market than by providing a small window into the heart of the entire business?  Whether it be selling ebooks, merchandise, mobile apps, or streaming video via the new Amazon Prime offering.  All made accessible with device that simply builds upon what the Kindle name is already good for: e-reading.  No doubt, they will already have a bunch of Kindle fans who are looking to upgrade, that is a given audience right there.  Without even having to sell the concept to those fans.

Personally, if this tablet does as well as I think it will.  I will start to recommend this device to those new to the tablet scene.  Seriously?  Since most people aren't going to harness the full processor power of their devices anyways.  I saw a demographic the other day that suggested most people use mobile devices for:
1- Web access and communicating via the web while on the go (social media).
2- Media consumption (YouTube, streaming media, etc.)
3- Apps.

And at it's very basic level the Kindle Fire seems to have those 3 features covered.  See their tv spot for a brief intro:

read more

Amazon's New Tablet Dubbed 'Kindle Fire'

Looks as though Amazon's new tablet that has taken the news by storm will be called the 'Kindle Fire' and should retail for $199.  It will feature a 7 inch screen and will be Android based.  If you check the article over on CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20112714-94/amazon-unveils-kindle-fire-tablet-for-$199/?tag=mantle_skin;content

You may notice that the device seems to resemble the Nook Color by Barnes & Noble.  The release of the 'Kindle Fire' will be the first actual tablet offered directly by Amazon.  As the previous versions of the Kindle were strictly e-book readers sporting the e-ink screens (which are monochrome).  The device does not include a camera or microphone and will only connect to Wifi networks (sorry, no 3G this time around).

The Nook Color by Barnes & Noble

So, it looks like for $199 you will not be running Honeycomb on it, but for $200 bucks it doesn't look like a bad tablet.  And if you know someone who loves their Kindle e-book reader, than I would recommend the 'Fire' for them.  Essentially, you are getting the e-book reader everyone knows and loves along with a color screen and more tablet like features.

read more