Opinion: Amazon’s tablet won’t shake up industry

This coming Wednesday the 28th, Amazon is set to hold a press conference for what most of the tech and blogging world believes will be to announce the long anticipated Amazon tablet to rival Apple’s iPad. While no one from Amazon is willing to discuss anything about the event other than the date and time, it’s pretty safe to say what the company will be unveiling to the world. Amazon will more than likely release the tablet with extremely aggressive pricing (some have even suggested a price tag of around $200), in an attempt to undercut the iPad and bring a solid and affordable alternative. Hit the break to join me for more.

While I certainly hope that the latter is true, I do have some concerns about this. My first concern is that in all likelihood, the Amazon tablet will be stripped almost completely of certain Google apps, most importantly the Android Market in favor of Amazon’s app market. Many people don’t look at this as a big deal, and in terms of functionality, that’s mostly true. However, what concerns me is moves like this will only add fuel to Apple’s argument that Android is “fragmented” and gives an “inconsistent” user experience across the board. No one, not even us, can deny that Apple has done a tremendous job of advertising and selling not only its products, but turning people away from its competitors; at least to the average consumer.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m truly excited to see Amazon’s tablet and I can’t wait to get the chance to play with it. I do think it’s going to be an excellent Android tablet. However, I also feel that the Amazon tablet being labeled as an ‘iPad Killer’ is completely ridiculous. I can’t tell you how sick I am of the iPad, iPod or iPhone “killer” monikers. We have to face the fact that none of these products are going away for a very long time. I think if Amazon wants their tablet to be truly competitive with the iPad, it’s going to need to be priced less than the iPad. Otherwise, the consumer is going to be faced with a “Well, I can get this Amazon tablet, or this iPad everyone talks about for the same price” scenario. Let’s face it, we all know who’s going to win that battle to the average consumer.

The bottom line is, if and when Amazon unveils their tablet which they intend to be direct competition to the iPad, it’s going to need to be very special both in features and in pricing to break free from the fate of other Android based tablets. While they’re all excellent tablets, most of them also lack that extra “oomph” that truly makes them appealing to the average consumer. Whether or not Amazon can carry out this remains to be seen, but I certainly hope it’s as special as the blogosphere is making it out to be.