More details emerge about Amazon's Android tablet, slated to hit the market this October in time for the holiday season. Analysts discuss the prospects for the Honeycomb machine.
The Amazon
Android tablet meme was revived in full force last week after stories by the
Wall Street Journal and
The New York Times unearthed more details about a media consumption device
that could challenge Apple's iPad or other e-reader devices.
The
Journal said consumers can expect a tablet
equipped with a 9-inch screen that connects users to Amazon's extensive media
content, including Amazon MP3 music and Cloud Player and Amazon Instant Video.
Such a device would run the Android "Honeycomb" tablet-tailored OS.
Amazon also
has an Android Appstore to offer users thousands of applications written for
the open-source platform, though the device will not have a camera. The company
is having an Asian hardware manufacturer-some have said Samsung-build the
machine.
The
Times meanwhile
said Amazon has struggled with how to position the device,
debating "the pros and cons of an Amazon tablet running Android versus
Amazon building its own operating system based on the existing Kindle
platform."
The market is
increasingly saturated with Honeycomb tablets such as the Motorola Xoom,
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Toshiba Thrive and Acer Iconia Tab 500, among others.
None of them have proven hot sellers to date.
Global
Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdry-who has
criticized Honeycomb tablets in the past as buggy
and not efficient or particularly user-friendly for the vast majority of
consumers-doesn't believe Amazon will deliver Honeycomb's salvation.
Chowdry
believes that if Honeycomb were going to succeed in this digital,
Internet-oriented age, it would have been an instant hit, noting that a
successful market product is usually defined within the first hour or two of
its launch.
As examples,
he pointed to Apple's iPhone, iPad and even the new Google+ social network,
which racked up 10 million users in two weeks.
"In the
Internet space, there is no second chance. You get it right or screw it up and
move on to the next project," Chowdry said. "In these areas, you have
exponential growth, or no growth. Honeycomb is a failure, period."
However,
Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, who has been
expecting an Amazon Android tablet for months to try to
challenge Apple's iPad domination, doesn't think this is Honeycomb's
last stand.
Epps pointed to Sony' S1 and S2 slates, which are
coming to the market in September, as high-quality Honeycomb tablets.
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