[boldman4]

With Amazon's new Kindle Fire coming out in the next few weeks, RIM HAS to permanently slash the price. Why? Previous rumors had stated that the new Kindle looks just like the Playbook. Turns out, this is the case because both tablets were designed and manufactured by Quanta:

The Amazon tablet will look like a PlayBook -- because it basically is. - gdgt

If RIM doesn't slash pricing to under $199 real soon, they're going to have a really hard time moving any more Playbooks once the Kindle Fire arrives. And trust me, the marketing for the Fire will dwarf PB marketing by several magnitudes.

[Chrisy]

Tablet competition is awesome! I'm watching the PlayBook price like a hawk now.

[robtanz]

Wouldn't it be awesome if the Kindle looked like the PB AND ran QNX....oh wait that's just a Playbook.

[papped]

So in other words it's rectangle...and has a screen...

[sk8er_tor]

Cadillac and Chevrolet are made by the same company. Uh oh, Cadillac better lower their prices to match Chevrolet!!!

[adrenaline_x]

Apple will sue for an injunction

[nomi1978]

There is no way they are lowering the price to 199.99. I understand they want to get it in the hands of people but no business is in it to lose money. Unless your name is HP.

The tablet costs them close to 240 to make if I remember correctly, they do their own software development which costs $$. 299 is the lowest I see it going to and even that is to low for profit margins because they will be giving it away to the stores.

399 is where it should have started off in my opinion and break the trend of charging 100 dollars more for each step up and make it 50 or 60 dollars instead. Once OS2 comes out we should see a better comparison.

[rleo25]

If you read well the link posted, Amazon Kindle quality is well under the playbook's... don't mix candy with pearls please...

[Jifffer]

With Amazon's new Kindle Fire coming out in the next few weeks, RIM HAS to permanently slash the price. Why? Previous rumors had stated that the new Kindle looks just like the Playbook. Turns out, this is the case because both tablets were designed and manufactured by Quanta:

The Amazon tablet will look like a PlayBook -- because it basically is. - gdgt

If RIM doesn't slash pricing to under $199 real soon, they're going to have a really hard time moving any more Playbooks once the Kindle Fire arrives. And trust me, the marketing for the Fire will dwarf PB marketing by several magnitudes.

After reading the posted article ...seems like Amazon will be nowhere near having a truly finished product by Christmas but will still attempt to solicit key buyers for that period. Considering the connectivity between the existing Playbook, which is an amazing product I like to believe, and my Blackberry ....why should RIM even seriously consider lowering their prices for an untested first version product which will nowhere be threatening ???? Just some more Playbook bashing ....its a free world ...if you just want to surf the net and read an electronic book ....there are plenty of low price tablets available out there !!!

[boldman4]

If you read well the link posted, Amazon Kindle quality is well under the playbook's... don't mix candy with pearls please...

I think that's a matter of the Amazon sources lowering expectations. We'll see.

[The Consigliere]

Well if they use the "bones" of the Playbook so be it, I doubt it'll be able to bridge to your Berry or any cell phone. It's a suped up kindle & I'm sure some people will like it & others won't, just like some people like the Playbook & others don't.

[kbz1960]

From the link

Although Amazon did refresh the ID of their PlayBook derivative, I'm told that this first tablet of theirs is "supposed to be pretty poor" and is a "stopgap" in order to get a tablet out the door for the 2011 holiday season -- which doesn't exactly leave the best taste in my mouth. But it's also not the most uncommon story, either: when you're breaking into a new market, sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to get in the game. You may remember how crappy the original Kindle was compared to later models!

And everyone crucifies RIM for doing the exact same thing. Wonder if they will update this one like RIM is the playbook or if you'll just have to buy the new one that isn't pretty poor.

[snowindec9]

with all the hype buildup rim did with the pb,they totally failed with this device.everything was out of proportion.rim is giving up by slashing the price.amazon kindle will do better.i know it.

[Economist101]

Well if they use the "bones" of the Playbook so be it, I doubt it'll be able to bridge to your Berry or any cell phone. It's a suped up kindle & I'm sure some people will like it & others won't, just like some people like the Playbook & others don't.

No, it won't "bridge to your Berry." No one but RIM is going to make the effort of supporting such a feature, especially after all the effort RIM put into this product has resulted in less than 800K shipments in 5.5 months and nearly across-the-board discounting.

[kbz1960]

No, it won't "bridge to your Berry." No one but RIM is going to make the effort of supporting such a feature, especially after all the effort RIM put into this product has resulted in less than 800K shipments in 5.5 months and nearly across-the-board discounting.

I think someone has a vendetta. Lose much in the market?

[Jdpraise]

I dont understand the entire bridge is fantastic. Every other phone for the most part can act as a wifi hotspot giving you access to a tablets full functionality.
Tethering should be free it is where I live..

All I can see with bridge is you get some functionality that should have been native to begin with.

Regarding the amazon tablet im excited to see where it goes, the amazon ecosystem is vast, giving it an edge few can compete with.

[SharpieFiend]

It also looks like the new Kindle will be ad-supported as well, meaning you are going to see an ad on every screen it displays. No thanks.

[Disparishun]

I think this is pretty interesting, actually. We're going to have Amazon putting major marketing muscle, and major content, behind a tablet that reportedly will look almost exactly like the Playbook. I am of two minds about this.

First, that this will be good for the Playbook, because its form factor and physical look will suddenly be "out there" in a way that it was not before.

Second, that this is a good reminder that what the consumer market gets excited about is not features or functions or specs, but about what you can do with the tablet -- in Amazon's case, get access to a huge library of premium content. Wouldn't it be great if, for a premium up-market version of the Kindle Fire product, Amazon made a deal with RIM to integrate their content and apps into the PlayBook!

[Tre Lawrence]

Amazon can sell this for a loss. It may simply be a strategic move to tie people into their ecosystem.

[kbz1960]

I thought amazon was a retailer. Is this reader/tab even color? When is Walmart coming out with their wallytab?

[howarmat]

It also looks like the new Kindle will be ad-supported as well, meaning you are going to see an ad on every screen it displays. No thanks.

doubtful since their "ad supported" kindle doesnt work like that either

[kb5zht]

Wouldn't it be awesome if the Kindle looked like the PB AND ran QNX....oh wait that's just a Playbook.

well not only that, if it did all the things a playbook can (tho i admit the playbook itself cant yet do half of what it is suppose to).

Competition IS a good thing. We would have OS 7 devices today if iphones, droifs, etc hadnt of pushed rim to work harder. Maybe dumb and dumber will push to get the OS on this thing finished sooner.

[lawguyman]

If Amazon, which is essentially a department store that operates on the internet, can put out a better product than RIM, I would be pretty surprised. It must be a hard thing to do because it has been so hard for anyone (other than Apple) to be successful doing it.

The one thing that this Kindle Fire has going for it is content. The gamble here is that people are really not looking at tablets to get anything done, people are interested in tablets to consume content: movies, books, and music.

You can argue about whether Playbook is short on this kind of content. It has Kobo, 7Digital and it already has access to Amazon's movie library (and its own supposedly coming too). So, I think that there is plenty of this kind of content available for Playbook right now and that has not helped Playbook.

So, I think people want tablets for more than just content consumption. It is said that the Kindle Fire has no camera. I think this is something people are looking for in a tablet and would probably pay more for. This is just one shortcoming.

I tend not to believe the hype about this device.

[kbz1960]

I thought amazon was a retailer. Is this reader/tab even color? When is Walmart coming out with their wallytab?

[OMGitworks]

I don't think Playbook was ever really buggy. It just didn't have many features. That condition persists today.

Amazon gets a head start I guess because it is using Android and will have access to Android Apps.

Still, Amazon is a department store, not a hardware/software company. I'm not expecting much.

Agreed but all they need it to be is a portal to their retail offerings. Price and functionality will be optimized for that role. Probably a few icons on the home screen you can't delete all of which lead to Amazon sites. If they break even on the tablet but drive 10% more traffic to their offerings, they win. They don't need to have the best hardware or software to win this one. AS a stand alone tablet it won't likely be that great, but as a portal device, it could be a winner for them.