The iPad's First REAL Competition

The greatly anticipated Amazon tablet (dubbed the Kindle) is expected to hit the streets before the Christmas buying season begins. M. G. Siegler at TechCrunch says he’s played with the new device and reports the new 7” tablet will be available sometime in October. So what makes the new Kindle different from every other Android tablet and why will it be the first to challenge the iPad?

Content, content and more content.

Unlike every other iPad “competitor”, Amazon has the content infrastructure in place to provide buyers with a true “end-to-end” experience. It’s something the Samsungs and Motorolas of the world don’t have and can’t provide. This complete solution including great hardware, a sound and user-friendly operating system and a convenient, well-stocked content market is what has made the iPad so successful (with over 80% market share). Take away any one of these three ingredients and the iPad would be no more successful than the HP TouchPad. Motorola and Samsung both make great hardware and the latest Android build, while no iOS is arguably good enough, but users wanting movies, music and more apps for their device are forced to navigate through a hodgepodge of content providers with no unified method of getting apps and media purchased and installed. Amazon is the only company that seems to get it. Their MP3 store has been on-line for years now and Amazon Prime customers recently got access to a wealth of movies. Additionally, according to Mr. Siegler, Amazon plans to open their own app store. If there’s one thing Amazon does better than anyone, it’s operate an on-line market. The Android Marketplace won’t even work on the new Kindle’s forked Android version that Amazon is customizing specifically for this device. Word is, it won’t look like any Android version we’ve seen.

So, it looks like Apple is finally going to have some competition in the tablet space. I say GREAT! Competition drives lower prices and innovation and so far, no one has mounted a serious challenge to the iPad. Amazon certainly has the chops to do it.