Appatic

*one of those not very Appatic posts*

Greg Kumparak from Techcrunch Gadgets (previously crunchgear and mobilecrunch) got this nice and rational enough blog post -- that everyone should read -- that i happen to mostly agree with, about MG Siegler scoop about how he has seen and played with what is going to be Amazon's Android 7-incher Slate.

That in turn is not really an Android Slate at all. As Amazon decided to take Android 2.1 and fork it, add their own UI-UX to it, cut it off from anything Google and then infuse it with everything Amazon. All at the palatable and tentative price of $250.

A price that instantly made everyone remember about the Android derived Nook Color from B&N.

Since MG Siegler could not take pictures of this yet to be Amazon Slate. Greg Kumparak took MG descriptions and made a mockup based on it:

Siegler said that it looked like the Blackberry Playbook in terms of the slate frame and that everything else was just nothing more than a launcher app. Something that after imagining only lead me to conclude that this particular Slate will be the first high profile true Media Slate. Because while the iPad is more about consumption and iOS is not a full-on OS, it is still a mature and fuller OS than what this Amazon device is going to be. Amazon is dumbing down things even more to the point of being able to call this device an appliance.

This new device will be more like the Zune HD. Amazon's Kindle Slate is pretty much also the first Cloud PMP.

Amazon:

Books, App Store (with their approved apps), Movies, Music, Amazon Billing System, Prime Subscription, etc.

Oh, and a browser. as they are nice. Or more likely they just figured that removing that would cause a big stir.

Because Amazon just not only forked Android. They stripped it down to its essentials. They are not really building it up, they just transformed into something else. Turning an Android into a Robot.

Downgrading the smarts to focus it in a few bunch of tasks.

I would say they even went further that B&N did with the Nook Color, where android was just cut up from evolving, censored and walled up to B&N approved apps and content. But it was still Android. Just a gimped one. A bit that made +Danny Sullivan furious in a very amusing way.

Do i think Amazon Kindle Slate will be successful? OH YES it do too. Why?

Because the Kindle is already a successful and known brand, the price is right, the content is there and this Kindle slate will be as easy as things can or should get. Would be actually shocked if the damn thing didn't sell well.

What i do expect is that MG had got the price not entirely right. As in that i think there could be 2 prices:

$150-$199 = Ad Supported / Opted in User Advance Tracking

$250 = No Ads, No Advanced user tracking and an Amazon Prime Subscription.

or if there was meant to be a single price, it will be just  $199

The reasons i believe that could be what will happen are:

1 - The hardware is paltry as hell. The cost of making these must not be higher than $75 - $90 bucks. Why the hell are you charging $250 for this thing Amazon, if it is going to be a Amazon content driven Cloud PMP?

2.- Otherwise where is exactly the edge of this against the B&N Nook Color?

3 - Lenovo just announced a quality Android Slate for $199! Amazon could revise the price based on this.

4 - Anticipation of B&N cutting the price of the Nook Color $50 bucks this fall.

5 - $250 is just too much for such a limited device instead of just buying Lenovo's $199 Android Slate that wont have any of the limitations of the Kindle Slate and can also access everything the Kindle Slate will.

In my case i would not buy it even if i were in the USA. But i know that many will want it for their kids or as a "not afraid to lose or break" device, compared to other options

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