Amazon will soon release a new 6-inch tablet. At just $50, it will be one of the cheapest tablets on the market.
The e-commerce giant has struggled to woo customers with its more expensive tablets, The Wall Street Journal reports. Amazon’s cheapest Kindle is priced at $79. Its Fire tablets range in price from $99 to $429.
Amazon has fierce competition in the tablet market, where Apple and Samsung reign supreme.
“[Apple and Samsung] combined account for 42 percent of tablet market share in the U.S., while Amazon only holds less than 1 percent market share of tablet market,” ValueWalk said.
The tablet market in general has struggled this year, according to the International Data Corporation. Worldwide, tablet sales dropped 7 percent in the second quarter of 2015 compared with the previous year.
Will Amazon’s new dirt-cheap tablet help revive the declining tablet market and boost demand for the company’s e-service products? Analysts aren’t sure. The WSJ said:
The move would potentially attract buyers looking for a simple — and effectively disposable — device for straightforward tasks like streaming video at home and shopping on Amazon.com. But such inexpensive tablets typically come with compromises like inferior screen quality, durability or battery life in comparison to more expensive tablets like Amazon’s larger Fire tablets and industry-leading devices like Apple Inc.’s iPad.
The new tablet also reportedly has a mono speaker rather than stereo.
“Will people tolerate a potentially inferior experience just because a tablet is $50?” said Frank Gillett, a Forrester Research analyst, in an interview with the WSJ. “Amazon has to be very careful about what they’re giving up to get to that low price point.”
Amazon’s new tablet reportedly will be released in time for the holidays. The WSJ said Amazon also plans to release new 8-inch and 10-inch screen tablets.
I could see myself buying Amazon’s cheap tablet for my kids to play on. They would only use it to play games and watch videos from Amazon, so this new inexpensive basic tablet would fit the bill.
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