Notes from the Design Stud(io)

I’m not the first to say this, but add my voice to those who are predicting that Amazon will be the first to offer an iPad alternative that really gains popular traction.

I don’t think it has Apple too worried — it won’t be a direct competitor to the iPad, as much as a different way to make use of the tablet form factor. Amazon understands a few things that all of Apple’s competitors have so far missed: simplicity, value and a complete ecosystem (read: iTunes Store) are what people want in a tablet.

Imagine: a Kindle for movies/TV/music, as well as books. If Amazon can follow through and produce, say, a lightly-subsidized $199 tablet that performs a few media-consumption-related functions very well, makes media purchasing easy, and is actually complete upon release… It will fly off the shelves. (And Amazon will finally get a finger into Apple’s media-sales pie.)

Interestingly, this will position the iPad and its app ecosystem (which the cram-an-entire-PC-into-a-Tablet crowd views as hopelessly limited) as the *high* end of the popular tablet market. The Amazon device will suddenly fit the popular “but it’s only good for media consumption” mantra that keeps being leveled at the iPad; which will make the iPad look like a productivity workhorse in comparison.

[Nigel Dessau, Chief marketing Officer of AMD] is similarly skeptical about Ultrabook as a separate category, but acknowledges AMD will be working with customers to build ultra-then portables. “We are all going that way,” he said.

— WSJ Blog

I’m sure it would suit Apple just fine if AMD created ultra-then portables.