Amazon is said to be working on a 7-inch and a 10.1-inch tablet

Aug 31, 2011 13:46 GMT  ·  By

It's not much of a secret that Amazon is working on its very own tablet. In fact, it may be working on several of them, at least a 7-inch model and a 10.1-inch one. Still, the company is staying mum. It is, however, testing a new, tablet-friendly version of its website, with oversized buttons and a cleaner layout.

The table-optimized Amazon.com has been spotted in the wild by some users, but it's still only available to a fairly limited number of people.

However, what has been spotted is not exactly a pure tablet version of the site. Rather it's a redesign of Amazon.com, which is in dire need of one - the site has never counted 'style' as one of its touting points.

The testing version should be easier for tablet users to navigate, but it's more than practical for regular desktop users as well, no compromises have been made on this front.

So far, the biggest changes, apparently the only changes, are to the header.

Some of the elements have been removed, or placed under menus and the remaining ones are bigger and better spaced out.

The oversized search bar takes up most of the screen.

The cart, account and wish list buttons occupy the right side, and there's a drop-down menu on the left enabling users to select the department they want to search or browse.

Thankfully, the boring blue hues are gone, replaced by more subtle but a lot more elegant silver ones.

The new site should be an improvement regardless of where your visiting it from, but if rumors are correct and the first Amazon tablet is landing next month, then the redesign should come just before the company's biggest strategic move since the Kindle.

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

The Amazon homepage in testing
The Amazon department menu in the redesigned Amazon.com
Open gallery