14 DAY TRIAL // More details on the upcoming Amazon Kindle tablet have surfaced. For one, the fact that it's called the Amazon Kindle. That in itself is enough to know how Amazon is going to position and market it, as a Kindle for those that want a full color display and more than just books.
The hardware is said to be decent but unimpressive. It will cost $250 and is said to feel rather snappy, so it hardly matters.
What matters is that it's the first device with a fighting chance against Apple's iPad and this has nothing to do with the hardware or the fact that it's running Android and everything to do with the fact that it's an Amazon tablet, with Amazon services, a custom user experience and low price.
Amazon did build on top of Android, but it's using an older version, perhaps older than Android 2.2. And it's going to develop on top of that, at least for the foreseeable future.
That doesn't really matter though since the Amazon Kindle tablet will be running all custom apps and software.
The UI will focus on content not applications and the main attraction will be integration with all of Amazon's content services.
The music app will be the Amazon Cloud Player, which is linked to its Cloud Drive service.
The Cloud Player has access to any track you've bought from the Amazon MP3 store and anything you upload to the Cloud Drive. Speaking of the Amazon MP3 Store, that's built right into the tablet too, of course.
The video app will be Amazon’s Instant Video, complete with access to movie and TV show rentals and streaming.
Obviously, the Kindle store app is taking a front seat. Amazon.com itself will be only a few taps away. The site is also testing a tablet-friendly redesign.
This means that most of the things people will want to do on a tablet, listen to music, watch movies or read books, will be catered to by Amazon.
And, if you want more, there's the Amazon App Store, for third party developers to showcase their apps.
If Amazon manages to sell several millions of Kindle tablets, as it is expected, developers are going to flock to the App Store a lot more than to the Android Market.
A true competitor to the iPad can't come from anyone other than Amazon. Google is working on a number of online content services, the music cloud, video rentals and so on, but it's nowhere near what Amazon offers.
Yet, Amazon's best strategic move is that it's not positioning its tablet as an iPad competitor. Instead, it's going to try to sell it to those that already have a Kindle or those that are undecided between a Kindle and a tablet (meaning an iPad). And Amazon has a great chance of it paying off.