To attract the cost-conscious group of buyers, Amazon will be releasing later this year its new product- a 6-inch screen tablet that will cost only $50, according to WSJ. To be made available in time for the upcoming holidays, the device will surely be one of the least expensive tablets on the market as its price is still below than Amazon's current Kindle e-reader at $79 and will be just be half of Fire HD 6-inch tablet sold at $99 with advertisements appearing as screen savers or $114 for those without ads. It is not clear yet if this newest tablet will include ads.
The coming tablet will be idea for those who are looking for simple device for straightforward tasks such as shopping at Amazon.com or streaming video at home. When measured diagonally across the screen, it is just half an inch bigger than the iPhone 6 plus smartphone of Apple Inc., but smaller than other large screen smartphones or phablets. This device from the Seattle online retailer is not expected to have phone capabilities.
To be able to lower the cost, Amazon outsourced a large part of the development to overseas firms such as Compal Communications Inc. of Taiwan and Huaqin Telecom Technology Co.of Shanghai. Compal previously worked with Apple and Hewlett-Packard Co. The rest of the work was done at Lab 126 unit, the company's Silicon Valley-based hardware-development center.
While the new device will surely lure buyers, it should also be known that cheap tablets usually come with compromises such as quality, durability, battery life when compared to more expensive brands such as Apple's iPad or even Amazon's larger Fire tablets. This $50 device will also have a mono speaker and not the stereo type.
The new tablet is a part of the slate that Amazon plans to release this year, together with the 8-inch and 10-inch screen tablets.