Kindle Who? Lenovo's $199 Tablet Up for Pre-Order

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AppId is over the quota
Lenovo

Amazon's Kindle Fire isn't the only $200 tablet in town. Lenovo's IdeaPad A1, a 7-inch Android slab, is up for pre-order, starting at $199. Lenovo expects these budget tablets to ship on October 27.

The IdeaPad A1 runs Android 2.3 and has a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, front- and rear-facing cameras and a 1024-by-600 display. The $199 model comes with 2 GB of built-in storage, plus a microSD card slot, and $50 more will get you 16 GB of storage instead.

(MORE: Eight New Tablets and Ultrabooks You Should Know About)

Spec-wise, it's worse than Amazon's dual-core tablet. I'm guessing it won't be as smooth as the Kindle Fire, and it won't have Amazon's vast digital storefront and super-simple interface built in. But it will include access to the Android Market and Google services without any tinkering on the user's end. That alone makes Lenovo's tablet an intriguing option for bargain-hunting Android users.

Although Lenovo lists the IdeaPad A1's $199 price as a "sale," I wouldn't worry too much about that. Prices for Android tablets are going down, not up, and Lenovo would never get away with selling this tablet for its $349 list price. If the IdeaPad A1 piques your interest, but you'd rather wait until it's actually shipping, I'm sure it'll still cost $199 as the holidays draw near.

(MORE: Amazon's Kindle Fire and New Kindle E-Readers Closeup)

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Leaked Sales Screenshots: Amazon's Kindle Fire Already Burning Up?

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AppId is over the quota
SHANNON STAPLETON / REUTERS

Now that we've got this iPhone-not-5 business out of the way, eyeballs are back on Amazon's Kindle Fire over a leaked sales report. Here's the report's short version: People are preordering the thing like mad.

Take with a pinch or two of sodium—the report comes from a tech blog dubbed Cult of Android, after all—but word is would-be Kindle Fire owners are snatching up Amazon's Android-based tablet to the tune of 2,000 units an hour on average, which adds up to slightly less than 50,000 a day.

(MORE: Could Amazon's Kindle Fire Dethrone Apple's iPad?)

The blog's trumpeting several screen grabs from "a verified source" within Amazon, grabs that depict the company's "internal inventory management system," called Alaska, or "Availability Lookup and Sku Aggregator."

According to the charts in the grabs, the Kindle Fire's already pre-sold a quarter of a million tablets. Do the math—the Kindle Fire ships in roughly six weeks—and assuming demand continues at that rate, you come up with a number approaching 2.5 million preorders by the time the Fire goes on sale, November 15.

(LIST: Tablets: 'Why Should Somebody Buy This Instead of an iPad?')

Could we be looking at an iPad 2 sales record upset? Perhaps. Estimates are the iPad 2 sold between 2.4 and 2.6 million units during its first month (after clearing 1 million during its opening weekend). If Kindle Fire pre-sales continue at the 50,000-a-day rate, right up to November 15, Amazon would easily surpass the estimated iPad 2 opening weekend sales figure during the Fire's first 24 to 48 hour gallop out the door.

But, and we're talking a huge but here, that assumes the chart above is accurate and representative, and that the current blistering preorder rate is sustainable through mid-November.

MORE: Amazon Unveils $199 'Kindle Fire' Android Tablet, $99 'Kindle Touch'

Matt Peckham is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @mattpeckham or on Facebook. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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TECHNOLOGY, A thing Amazon must questions correctly with the Kindle Tablet

If Amazon a tablet known as expected, then have this week you a nail thing really well, if it is - to be successful and that's the tablet look, feel, usability and design make solid. Why? If something more than a me-too Tablet have a hard time, the new tablet of the interface from the get-go, is not nail it. This is a major challenge for the e-commerce powerhouse whose lack of aesthetics, or well presented user interface was his Achilles heel.
With its e-commerce platform, the hooks in the sale of digital media and own Android app store, you would think, success would be a given. Well, not so fast, Amazon.
Ignite Clank
Image of the first generation Kindle with Android OS (such as the Kindle Tablet may).To start with, let's just say, I hope that design elements from the Kindle does not take a Kindle Tablet e-book reader.
Nothing about Amazon Kindle screams style e-readers. Still is the interface make it easy to do things. With the latest version of the Kindle some options seem buried under menu layers or require more clicks than you would expect. And for years, I was surprised how much Amazon removed, it has become in the text-heavy design of the Kindle menus or strong navigate of their site, making the experience when finding and managing digital content a laborious click-fest.
Interface aesthetics have always felt like an afterthought for Amazon. Comparison the fresh, Visual interface of Barnes & noble 2011 nook makes third-generation Kindle (approx. 2010) feel, flat and staid - even if one would have thought that this third generation would have been Amazon able, his attention to nuances like interface aesthetics.
Wanted: Tablet design Mojo
Also the last Amazon products that complement an own Tablet stumbled upon when it comes to interface design. Amazon's music cloud players works, but can frustrating to use, and does not have any sense of design. I have similar experiences with the current Amazon shopping and music store apps on Android. Exactly like the Android cloud players Android came both the iOS Amazon shopping - and music-store apps not the flexibility and integration bring consumers to expect thanks to Apple.
Look has never been Amazon's strong suit. Amazon has surpassed always to the behind the scenes technology. Its recommendation engine for us, is only one buy always famous nor the darling of the e-commerce sites make bought online to track its a click payment system and the ability to things it. These functions match a killer, aesthetic interface, and Amazon could have a winner.
Two versions of Kindle.Design WINS
The only exception to my Amazon interface frustrations is his Kindle applications for iOS and Android. The applications are not perfect, but they go far show that Amazon can thoughts to give, and execution, well-designed, Visual products.
The hat-trick with an Amazon Tablet not with whether Amazon will be able to offer a device that integrates the showcase and services – this is a simple bet and a matter of course in the light of its history with Kindle e-readers and reader. The real question is whether the company can produce a tablet with an interface, of course, that is visually appealing and functional on for how it will be used by consumers.
Apple, on the other hand was a master of the interfaces - it designs its software smoothly with their hardware works. And it does so with an unsurpassed attention to detail.
Sure, the iPad success on the clean, can be credited simply-to-use interface of the Tablet-iOS operating system. This legendary OS had years of incubation on the iPhone before it received his doctorate in tablets.
Android two design steps behind Apple
In contrast to Apple the Android user interface feels again still as if it is in its infancy. Perhaps it is good that Amazon has chosen its own way with your own custom interface, allegedly, to follow the Android OS. But that's a big maybe.
Color NooksAmazon, the their own design independence would exercise be a good thing - or not. Barnes & noble took an independent design path with its nook color. As a result this e reader/Tablet looks nothing like Android, but is. Barnes & noble has done a great job, the reading experience for use on the 7-inch Tablet tailoring. But nook color is not a tablet, the media and app usage, aimed, like Amazon tablet to become apparent: B &-N has some Tablet features such as Web surfing and E-mail, and it has own app store, but the choice remains limited.
We still don't know what Amazon interface looks like, and what will be - working on their Tablet PC about the fact that the apps from the Appstore Amazon will be the requirements for applications. According to reports, the Tablet have no Google market, the on board.
If with this tablet, Amazon finally can make a product that is an outstanding star with its user interface and user experience, the Tablet has legitimate potential, a threat to Apple iPad. But if not, it risked provides the interface nail still another Ho-Hum tablet in a crowded, even if a Ho Hum tablet with probably a built-in media consumption and e-book experience than most. One can hope.

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TECHNOLOGY, Amazon Kindle Tablet Could Shake Up Tablet Wars: Here's How

Amazon’s unveiling of a Kindle tablet would shake up the industry and pose one of the biggest threats to the Apple iPad -- which is why the technology world has its eyes on the online retailer as it prepares for a media gathering in New York this week ahead of the holiday season.
The iPad is still expected to maintain its dominance, as it will account for nearly 75 percent of the tablets sold this year. But the Kindle tablet could start a new era that beckons a major slugfest between not just Amazon and Apple, but also with other big players like Samsung and Motorola.
Amazon has brand recognition, a bevy of existing loyal Kindle e-reader owners, and a Web-based e-commerce platform that includes one-click access to buying e-books, movies, digital music downloads, its own Android app store, and streaming media catalog. That adds up to Amazon being uniquely suited to go head-to-head with Apple in the tablet market and become a formidable competitor across the industry.
Wednesday could be the day, as Amazon has scheduled a news conference. Forrester estimates that an Amazon tablet could sell between 3 million and 5 million units by the end of the year.
While it borrows the name of the Amazon e-reader, the Kindle tablet is believed to be much more than just color upgrade to Amazon’s popular e-book reader, the Kindle. It’s expected to be a customized version of an Android-based tablet, more recognizable to an iPad or Motorola Xoom than a limited function e-book reader.
Here’s a primer on what the Amazon Kindle tablet will look like and the competition it will spark.
Tracking Down the Amazon Kindle Tablet
Rumors have circulated for months that Amazon is developing a tablet, and recently one reporter confirmed its existence and wrote of his hands-on experience working with a preproduction test unit.
TechCrunch's MG Siegler says he has seen and touched a prototype of the Amazon Kindle tablet. He says the tablet is Android at heart, but distinctively Amazon in its implementation. Amazon has taken the open source Android OS and developed its own custom skin for the OS -- creating a user interface that mimics the ubiquitous Kindle motif with its dark blue, black, and orange color scheme.
Amazon Kindle Tablet Could Shake Up Tablet Wars, And Here's HowSiegler claims the Kindle tablet unit he worked with has a 7-inch display. Multiple sources -- including Siegler -- report that Amazon will also offer a 10-inch model of the Kindle tablet, but not until after the 2011 holiday season. Siegler also confirms that Amazon will offer the Kindle tablet for $250 -- half of the entry level cost for an iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Motorola Xoom. Even among its 7-inch cousins, the Kindle tablet will be competitively priced at $250.
If the $250 price tag includes membership in Amazon Prime, as rumored, that price becomes a bargain. Membership in the service is a $79 value -- effectively bringing the cost of the tablet itself to only $171, and providing additional value unique to the Kindle tablet. Amazon Prime provides free two-day shipping on eligible Amazon purchases, and has its own Netflix-like movie streaming service. For example, there are also rumors that Amazon is preparing a subscription model for e-books, similar to what Netflix offers for movies; the book subscription would also be included as part of Amazon Prime.
Amazon has already launched its own Android app store. The Amazon app store for Android integrates Android into the Amazon ecosystem, and the Kindle tablet will integrate Amazon into the Android ecosystem. The combination of the capabilities of Android and the brand recognition and respect of Amazon will make the Kindle tablet a formidable competitor.
The Competition
The Amazon Kindle tablet is entering an overwhelming sea of tablet rivals.
The 7-inch form factor is closer to the size of the Kindle e-reader, and for many it hits a sweet spot between being large enough to be useful as a tablet, yet small enough to be more portable and well-suited for one-handed use. While the Kindle tablet will be measured against the iPad 2 like every other tablet, its real competition comes from other 7-inch tablets like the Acer Iconia A100, the Lenovo A1, and the upcoming successor to the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, now bumped slightly larger to the 7.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7.
Amazon's E-book Reader, KindleComparisons to the Barnes & Noble Nook Color are also inevitable. The $249 Nook Color is an e-reader, but it is built on its own custom version of Android, and Barnes & Noble eventually embraced those Android roots to make the Nook Color a low-cost Android tablet with its own app store.
Barnes & Noble is also rumored to be launching a 10-inch version of the Nook Color before the end of 2011. It is expected to sell for $349, and will give Barnes & Noble a head start against a larger Kindle tablet for users who prefer the 10-inch tablet form factor.
Amazon's Weak Spot
For all of its potential advantages, the Amazon Kindle tablet also faces challenges.
First, just as there are those who prefer the 7-inch form factor, there are those who do not. At 7 inches, the display has significantly less real estate than a 9- or 10-inch tablet, yet it is still too big to fit comfortably in a pocket. It is possible that Amazon chose 7 inches to intentionally avoid direct iPad comparisons, or to make the device more appealing to the Kindle e-reader fan base.
Customizing Android could be brilliant, or it could end up being Amazon's Achilles heel. Customizing Android enables Amazon to create a tablet experience that is unique to Amazon -- setting it apart from the array of rival Android tablets and putting Amazon in control of updates rather than waiting around for Google. But, the burden will be on Amazon to continue to develop and maintain its custom OS, and splitting off from the Android pack could lead to app compatibility issues -- especially as Android moves to its next-generation operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, later this year.
The other pitfall is the same one that plagues every tablet on the market: it's not an iPad. Apple dominates the tablet market with the iPad, and it is a dominant player in the smartphone area with the iPhone. The popularity of iOS is a self-perpetuating cycle. Millions of users are already invested in the Apple iOS ecosystem, and convincing them to break ranks and start over on a new platform is a daunting challenge.
That said, the future seems bright for the Amazon Kindle tablet. Amazon is a respected brand name, and it has established the Kindle as the de facto e-reader. Merging the Amazon brand, the popularity of the Kindle, the functionality of Android, and the vast media and retail distribution ecosystem of Amazon into a single device at a reasonable price point seems like a perfect storm capable of actually putting a dent in Apple's dominance of the tablet market.

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