Amazon is hoping that their entry into the tablet PC market isn’t a case of too little too late as rumors begin to swirl that the tablet will finally be released early this fall.
More and more companies are trying to give Apple a run at their most productive and popular devices and applications. Google has set its sites on iTunes with the upcoming release of their Google Music Beta. Now Amazon is finally going to take a run at the iPad with their own tablet PC. At least we think they are. While the tablet has never been officially confirmed Amazon’s own CEO Jeff Bezos has said that at some point the internet shopping giant would put out their alternative to the iPad.
Now the Amazon tablet rumors are gaining new steam, thanks to Taiwanese component makers who say they have been told that the parts need to be completed in time for an early fall launch of the tablet. Amazon has always had its fingers on the pulse of the retail business and this situation would be no different as the fall launch would mean that their particular tablet would be out just in time for the holiday shopping season.
According to the component makers, Amazon will adopt processors that are designed by Texas Instruments, while the touch panels will be produced by Taiwanese tech company Wintek, ILI Technology is poised to provide the LCD drivers for the devices and Quanta Computers will be tagged to put all the different components together. One bit of extra news is that apparently one of the things that will set this new tablet apart from the others is that Amazon will offer a special streaming service that can be watched on the tablets and only on the tablets (at least for now).
One final detail from the component makers is that Amazon expects there to be some pretty decent demand for the tablet, with the component makers being asked to ship 700,000-800,000 units per month and targeted sales of four million tablets by the end of the year.
Of course, all of this information is from outside sources and has still not been confirmed by the Amazon bigwigs as of now.
