WALL STREET JOURNAL WROTE: AMAZON PLANS "TABLETS" BY OCTOBER.
That was the headline when I started writing this. It's been changed to: AMAZON PLANS IPAD RIVAL.
(Thanks to the ever-alert and connected Edward Boyhan for the heads-up.)
They also changed the opening paragraphs (while I was typing), the first one now saying, "Amazon.com Inc. plans to introduce a tablet computer before October, said people familiar with the matter, in a move that will heighten the online retailer's rivalry with Apple Inc." [Always make it mainly about an arch rival...sells better.]
Well, "before October" is what everyone else has been saying although it was more on the order of "August or September," but WSJ writers Stu Woo and Yukari Iwatani Kane have more info, from sources AKA leakers, probably with some permission.
They add that the sources said that Amazon will also release "two updated versions" of its Kindle e-readers "in the 3rd quarter," which leaves us with July-Sept also.
' One will be a touch-screen device. The other won't have a touch screen, but will be an improved and cheaper adaptation of the current Kindle, said people who have seen the device. '
It's mentioned that Amazon spokesman didn't return requests for comment, but they almost never do on future releases. However, Jeff Bezos' "Stay tuned." a couple of months ago said quite a bit with two words.
Woo and Kane add:
' The Amazon tablet will have a roughly nine-inch screen, people familiar with the product said, and will run on Google Inc.'s Android operating system. The online retailer isn't designing the device itself, but is outsourcing production to an Asian manufacturer, these people said.These folks are very ...'familiar' with it. at least. :-) I'll refer to them now as PF's
The device will not have a camera, said one person familiar with it. '
The one surprise would be a 9" screen, as speculation had focused on 7", 8.9" and 10" choices, and the 8.9" seems a good compromise, EXCEPT that even the 9.7" Kindle DX has not seemed quite large enough for PDFs although it's FAR better than the 6" e-readers for those. Maybe the DXG will get the long-due PDF enhancements that the Kindle 3 has had since last August, with the same type of display technology.
I had written, before the later WSJ-changes, that the piece started out with "tablets" by October and ended up talking about only "The Amazon tablet." Someone else, in-house, noticed and they've changed the piece. It's been rumored Amazon has been planning a second, more advanced one in early 2012, so that may have been the mixup when the PFs described the Amazon plans.
On the two Kindle e-readers, they'll use the same e-Ink technology as before, the sources said.
MY guess? Spell that 'h-o-p-e'... The 'improved and cheaper' Kindle might be a new Kindle DX Graphite with WiFi, LONG awaited. Fingers crossed for enhanced PDF capabilities, at least. But they still have two versions, of the 6" model to think about, one of them with WiFi only.
And their wording was "the Kindle" which Amazon has used mainly for the 6" WiFi-Only model.
Note that their announcement about the AT&T-supported, lowered pricing of the Kindle 3G SO today emphasized, more heavily than they have before, the benefits of 3G.
WSJ probably is one of the news organization trusted most by Amazon, so this one is more credible than some. But there are so many possibilities. What do you think?
See the ongoing List of stronger Amazon tablet rumors with dates, titles and links to the Kindleworld blog articles, with linked sources. [This won't be one of them.]
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