13 Big Questions About the Amazon Tablet

If Las Vegas has odds on Amazon releasing a tablet device, you should not bet against it happening. That's how pervasive and frankly convincing the onslaught of rumors about this as-yet unofficial tablet's imminent release has been.

So let's add some more, ahem, Kindle-ing to the fire.

Here's what we know about Amazon's tablet—people should "stay tuned" to see if there's any truth to the rumors of the device, according to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

That's it. That's the entirety of the official word from Amazon on a tablet aside from "no comment," and Bezos made that cryptic statement way back in May.

But now that Amazon has sent out an invitation for a mysterious event on Sept. 28, the rumor mill is really spinning off its hinges. We could see a 7-inch, 9-inch, or 10-inch tablet in just a few days, according to various reports. As the expected due date of what's rumored to be called the Amazon Kindle (yes, just like the company's e-reader!) approaches, theories about what it is and what it means have gone into overdrive.

And aside from the reports about the device itself, folks are looking for clues in other places, too. Did you know that Amazon has been testing a tablet-friendly redesign of it website? Or that the e-commerce giant is believed to have registered "KindleAir.com" for whatever that's worth?

The gossip about the Amazon tablet has also extended to speculation about what this rumored device will mean for ereaders. The consensus is that it could mean steeply slashed prices. DigiTimes claims Amazon plans to cut Kindle ereader prices when it releases the rumored tablet. That jibes with what one knowledgeable source told PCMag in July—that consumers should expect a sub-$100 ereader before the end of the year.

And almost Apple-esque fashion, rumors are even cropping up about what Amazon has planned after it releases an as-yet-unannounced product that nobody with official cred is on the record as saying even exists. TechCrunch, which claimed earlier this month to have handled a testing version of a 7-inch Amazon tablet, says the company is also working on a "multi-touch screen/e-ink hybrid tablet device" but it's "nowhere near completion."

But let's get to the meat of what we know, or think we know about Amazon's much-ballyhooed, so-far-invisible tablet. Click through the slide show for a breakdown of all the strictly unofficial gossip that's out there, plus one rumor that we've made up from scratch.

1. What’s the Amazon Tablet Called?

The latest word is that it's going to have the name "Kindle Fire." Previously, it was thought that it would be dubbed simply Kindle, just like the e-ink-based Kindle ereaders that Amazon sell. But that was according to TechCrunch’s MG Siegler, who claimed earlier this month to have handled a testing version of the tablet and also came forward with the Kindle Fire report.

2. What Does It Look Like?

Amazon’s tablet has a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen that’s full-color and back-lit like a tablet, rather than using e-ink like an ereader, according to TechCrunch. It looks a lot like Research in Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook with a similar, rubbery backing, and has no physical buttons other than the power button and no camera, according to the website. But hold the phone—The Wall Street Journal and others have reported that Amazon actually has a 9-inch tablet that it’s prepping for release this year.

3. When Will It Be Released?

Most likely, very soon. Amazon just announced the event that will almost certainly unveil it. Beyond that, TechCrunch previously claimed the 7-inch Amazon Kindle tablet will be released at the end of November, and if it proves successful, will follow up with a 10-inch model in 2012. But the The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Amazon would release a 9-inch tablet "before October," which means it would be arriving in the next two weeks. Other reports have pinpointed a release date more generally at sometime before the end of 2011.

4. How Much Will It Cost?

Pretty much everybody agrees that Amazon would want to price its rumored tablet considerably lower than the price Apple charges for its iPad 2, which starts at $499 for the 16GB model. Hewlett-Packard’s slashing of prices for its TouchPad even before announcing the discontinuation of that device demonstrates just how tough it is out there for tablet-makers not named Apple. TechCrunch says Amazon is pricing the Kindle tablet at $250. If they throw in free membership to Amazon Prime, though, that technically becomes $171. Tim Bajarin wrote back in August that Amazon could really disrupt the Android tablet by pricing a tablet device at about 20 to 25 percent below cost, which he later clarified to mean a price of $249.

5. How Will Amazon Make Money on It?

Bajarin thinks Amazon "could recoup the losses [accrued by selling a tablet at below cost] by amortizing users' purchases of books, music, and videos over an 18- to 24-month period" and that "if Amazon introduced a new pricing model tied to its services, it would be very difficult for any hardware-only tablet vendor to compete in the burgeoning market."

6. Are Magazine Publishers on Board?

According to reports, yes. All Things D says three major magazine publishers--Hearst, Conde Nast, and Meredith--have struck deals to sell their magazines on the Amazon tablet. Time Inc. is the only holdout, though Amazon is still in talks with the company. Sources say the content will be specifically tailored for the Amazon tablet, and the deal is the industry-standard revenue split of 70 percent for the publisher and 30 percent for Amazon.

7. What Operating System Does It Run?

The Amazon Kindle tablet runs Google’s Android mobile operating system, but it’s a highly Kindle-ized version of the OS, according to TechCrunch. Siegler said the device he handled had an OS built on top of a version of Android earlier than Android 2.2, but doesn't have much else to do with Android: "[N]o Google app is anywhere to be found" on the tablet, and "They are not working with Google on this. At all."

8. What’s the Interface Like?

The Kindle tablet works via two-finger multi-touch, unlike Apple's iPad, which uses 10-finger multi-touch, according to TechCrunch. As for the way it handles, here’s Siegler: "The interface is all Amazon and Kindle. It's black, dark blue, and a bunch of orange. The main screen is a carousel that looks like Cover Flow in iTunes which displays all the content you have on the device. This includes books, apps, movies, etc. Below the main carousel is a dock to pin your favorite items in one easy-to-access place. When you turn the device horizontally, the dock disappears below the fold."

9. What Can It Do?

Bajarin says "multiple sources me that [Amazon’s tablet] will have the best reading experience of any tablet on the market." Combine that with TechCrunch’s report on the Kindle-ized Android OS that the tablet supposedly runs and rumors that Amazon will aggressively push its content onto the device via an initially free subscription to the Amazon Prime service—you’re looking at a consumption device that’s a vehicle for ferrying users to Amazon’s services more than a general-purpose computer, at least in the beginning. "Amazon's content store is always just one click away," writes Siegler. "The book reader is a Kindle app (which looks similar to how it does on Android and iOS now). The music player is Amazon's Cloud Player. The movie player is Amazon's Instant Video player. The app store is Amazon's Android Appstore."

10. What Are Its Specs?

When there’s disagreement on something as basic as whether Amazon’s tablet is a 7-inch device or a 9-inch one, trying to sort out what’s supposedly beneath the hood is difficult. Let’s start with TechCrunch, which says the Kindle tablet has 6GB of storage, no camera, is Wi-Fi-only, and runs on a single-core processor. An earlier rumor put forward by Boy Genius Report claimed that Amazon had two tablets in the works, an entry-level tablet codenamed Coyote that’s powered by Nvidia's dual-core Tegra 2 mobile platform, and a more powerful device codenamed Hollywood that sports Nvidia's upcoming quad-core "Kal-El" chip.

11. Who’s Supplying the Parts?

Aside from Nvidia or whoever makes the single-core chip that TechCrunch claims is in the first Kindle tablet? Here we turn to DigiTimes, the Taiwan-based tech journal that routinely churns out rumors from the Asia-based components makers and device assemblers that contract with Apple and others on mobile gadgets. At various times in the past few months, DigiTimes has claimed that Quanta Computer is assembling an entry-level, 7-inch tablet for Amazon to unleash in 2011, U.S.-based E Ink is supplying the touch panels, and Kindle ereader-assembler Foxconn is putting together a 10-inch version that will be released in 2012. The tech journal also claimed that Amazon was running into trouble in the summer getting tablet touch panels from TPK Holdings, Wintek, HannStar Display, and J Touch because Apple was snapping them all up for the iPad 2. ZDNet has also reported that Quanta is making a tablet for Amazon.

12. How Many Is Amazon Building?

DigiTimes reported in May that Amazon was ordering enough tablet components from Taiwanese manufacturers to assemble up to 800,000 units a month "during the peak season." It wasn’t clear whether that figure referred to just one version of the tablet, like the 7-inch entry-level Kindle tablet supposedly coming out this year, or to more than one model.

13. What’s Another Totally Made-Up Rumor About the Amazon Tablet?

Amazon was waiting on Apple to send out invites for its iPhone 5 announcement event before scheduling its own coming out party for the Kindle tablet at around the same time. But then the Wall Street Journal spilled the beans on Apple's party, and Amazon decided to go ahead with its plans. Like we said, that’s totally made up. And anyway, such testicular fortitude is sorely lacking in tech companies these days. But Bezos is one of the contenders for the biggest-bad-ass-in-tech role that was vacated when Steve Jobs resigned as Apple’s CEO in August. Jobs and Apple own the tablet market that Amazon is reportedly trying to break into, so why not come out swinging at the 800-pound gorilla?