Amazon Comin' Yo

So Amazon has decided to unveil a new tablet:

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), which revolutionized reading with its Kindle e-reader, is expected to unveil a tablet computer next week that analysts say will seriously challenge Apple's (AAPL.O) market dominating iPad.

Indeed, the big question is whether it will challenge Apple's iPad. The iPad has been hugely successful and Apple is selling every tablet that they can make. Everyone wants to know if Amazon's tablet, which will reportedly be called the Kindle Fire, will be a threat to the iPad:

Ultimately, it’s a question of how much Amazon has in common with Apple. If they have enough of the same DNA, that fact may separate the color Kindle apart from every other Android tablet on the market — and give Cupertino a run for its money.

The big deal with Apple has been their execution in delivering their products and for the iPad, it's been with Apps:

Today, there are almost half a million iPhone and iPod apps. In the space of less than two years, there are almost 100,000 iPad apps. I don’t know exactly how many Android tablet apps there are, but I do know that any time I’ve used an Android tablet, I have a heck of a time finding decent Android tablet apps (there are thousands of excellent Android phone apps). Tablet developers are clearly building their iPad versions first and, given the 25 millions iPads already sold, likely achieving their greatest success on the iOS platform.

Mashable believes that Amazon has a similar built in ecosystem that'll enable the Kindle Fire to thrive:

Amazon has one big advantage over virtually every other Android Tablet manufacturer: it understand user interfaces. No other competitor, aside from Apple, runs such an active and varied website for consumers. The Seattle-based retailer has been perfecting Amazon.com’s interface for 16 years. When Amazon was just books, it was pretty straightforward — but as the company added other product categories, it struggled to find an rational interface metaphor. Even so, Amazon was the acknowledged leader in the space. When it introduced tabs, all other online retail sites tried them as well.

Then there's pricing:

But I doubt Amazon cares if it takes a small loss on the tablets. They’ll be putting a fully functional, Internet and media-ready portal to all of its products in the hands of millions of existing customers. (How many people do you know who do not have an Amazon account?)

Amazon has features like Amazon Prime and the Amazon App Store which can give it a pricing advantage over the iPad, while still being a profitable entity for the company.

PC World says Amazon needs to get this right:

The hat trick with an Amazon tablet will lie not with whether Amazon can offer a device that integrates its storefront and services—that's an easy bet, and a foregone conclusion given its history with Kindle e-readers. The real question is whether the company can produce a tablet with an interface that's natural, visually pleasing, and functionally spot-on for how it will be used by consumers.

The Tablet market isn't easy to break into:

If, with this tablet, Amazon can finally make a product that's a standout star with its interface and usability, the tablet has legitimate potential to be a threat to Apple's iPad. But if the company doesn't nail the interface, it runs the risk of offering yet another ho-hum tablet in a crowded landscape, albeit a ho-hum tablet with, presumably, a better-integrated media consumption and e-book experience than most. One can hope.

Amazon is late to the Tablet party, but only Apple is really having fun in the party. Other companies have made attempt to compete with the Cupertino giant, but have come up short. The iPad is a jack of all trades, and it has the support of Apple's application Arsenal. Amazon seems to be the one company that can compete with Apple on the application front, with its App Store, but the fact is the tablet, itself, has to be good in order to compete.

Amazon is taking a risk by entering the tablet market, but if they get it right, it could be a huge win for the company.

What's Goin On?

I'd like to introduce a new class of post that I'll make from time to time. It's called "What's Goin On?" Basically, I'll look at events that are happening through out the world. May be I'll comment about them, may be I'll let them stand on their own. The key thing is to share them with the world. Here we go:

This is a story I've commented on this week, but it's turning out to be a bigger issue of security. This past week, on Christmas Day, a man was apprehended after trying to light a bomb on an airplane after it landed at Detroit Metro Airport. It appears that the man failed, but several facts have arisen after the incident. It has been reported that his father had reported him to the US Government. Here's some back ground on the suspect:

This New York Times Article reveals something else:

Instead, officials said Sunday, they marked the file of the son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. And when they passed the information on to Washington, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was added to 550,000 others with some alleged terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.

It will be interesting to see what develops as a result of this incident. We've already seen TSA have a security breach that revealed secrets including racial profiling when it comes to checking people. Will this go one step further? Some people say that security checks are doing their jobs. However, it is clear with incidents like this that they aren't. Not only are they checking people who are completely innocent (like myself), they are not checking people like Abdulmutallab, who have bad intentions. I think an easy solution would be to scan passports to make sure that people are not on any terrorist watch lists.

Things aren't any better in Iran where protests continue to sprout up since their election in June, 2009. The latest protests have turned violent, showing an increasingly dissident group of support against the government of Ahmadinejad. I'm a fan of seeing visually what is going on, so here's a video from Al Jazeera:


While we're in the Middle East, it's the one year of the bombings in Gaza. Here's a video of children recounting their stories. I couldn't imagine being in a situation like this. Imagine being that young and having that sort of chaos escalating around you, your home, your life. I remember watching a live feed of Gaza last year and it was a constant stream of bombs and machine gun fire.

Just chilling, haunting stuff.

Speaking of anniversaries, Monday is the two year anniversary of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. We still have no answers about her murder nor do we have stability in the Pakistani government. There is a lot of work to do.


If there's any question that China will take over the world, China has unveiled the fastest train in the world:


In science and technology, the focal point of news seems to be on Apple's new tablet. Apple is one of the most successful companies with their incredible computing machines, music devices, and of course, their phones. Now they are introducing a tablet and the industry is going rampant with curiosity. What impact will the introduction of the tablet have on the market? I look forward to seeing it because quite frankly I'm not sold on the Tablet idea. I need to learn more about its usefulness.

That's all for "What's Goin On?"