After trying to win over consumers with pricier tablets, Amazon is said to be working on a slate for the more budget-conscious.
The Internet retail giant is planning to introduce a $50 tablet with a 6-inch screen in time for the holiday shopping season, the Wall Street Journal reports. At half the price of Amazon’s current 6-inch HD Fire tablet, the new slate would be one of the least expensive tablets on the market.
The tablet would be the first of a collection Amazon is planning to release this year that would include a 8- and 10-inch screens, the latter of which would be larger than Amazon’s current HDX 8.9 tablet, the Journal reports.
Amazon declined to comment on the report.
Also sporting a 6-inch screen, Amazon’s Fire HD 6 is currently the retailer’s least expensive tablet at $99, with screen-saver advertisements. The tablet also sells for $114 without the ads. The Journal reported that it wasn’t clear whether the new tablet would have ads.
The report emerges just days before Apple is expected to unveil a plus-size iPad Pro. This new iPad is expected to debut at Apple’s September 9 event and have a high-resolution display and possibly speakers on both sides of the device.
In addition to Apple, Amazon would be facing the challenge of attracting consumers in a market where interest in slates has waned, thanks largely to limited upgrades and a lack of hardware innovation. The global tablet market declined 7 percent year over year during the second quarter, International Data Corporation reported in July.
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SOURCE: Cnet, Steven Musil
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