It appears that Amazon’s new 10-inch tablet won’t reach the market until 2012. They reportedly will be releasing their 7-inch tablet first and the 10-inch version sometime in the first quarter of 2012.
Amazon is expected to target the same price range as the Nook which retails for $250. They want to price the 7-inch version at a couple hundred below the price of Apple’s Ipad. The greatest challenge Amazon will have is the app market. The Ipad currently offers significantly more apps than any of it’s competitors. This may be the reason that the 10-inch competitors have not taken much market share away from Apple. Amazon will reportedly be heavily modifying the Android software to make sure that their tablet is a “finished” product compared to some of the other Android tablets on the market.
In other tablet news, HP has reported that they will make another run of their HP Touchpad line. While it is unclear why they are building more of these tablets to sell at a significant loss, it does show that there is a significant market for cheap tablets. Savy shoppers will be able to find Touchpad models with the 16gb harddrive for $99, and the 32gb versions for $149. Best Buy recently confirmed that they will be selling their remaining inventory at these discounted prices.