Last year we saw Amazon introduce a new Fire HD tablet (shown above) that offered a 6-inch screen and a price of just $99. Apparently that’s not cheap enough for Amazon, though, because a new report claims that the mega retailer is prepping an even lower-cost Android tablet.
A new report claims that Amazon is planning to launch a new 6-inch tablet that’ll cost just $50. According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, Amazon outsourced a lot of the tablet’s development to overseas companies like Shanghai Huaqin Telecom Technology Co. and Compal Communications Inc. in an effort to lower its price. The cheap 6-inch tablet will reportedly have a mono speaker and is expected to launch in time for the holidays.
Today’s report also suggests that Amazon is prepping new 8-inch and 10-inch tablets that are slated to debut this fall, but no other details about these products are given.
There’s no shortage of cheap Android tablets available, but typically they come from relatively unknown manufacturers and offer less than stellar performance. While we’ll have to wait and see exactly how well this cheap 6-inch Amazon tablet performs (if it’s actually released, that is), I’d bet that a lot of folks would pull the trigger on one for the holidays. Not only would the device carry a name that a lot of people know of, but its $50 price range would be near impulse buy territory for many.