Comments on: Amazon patents dualume tablet

By: rogerknights

rogerknights — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 07:01:44 +0000

PPPS: One last (?) thought. Maybe the “Four” will include all the software enhancements that should have been made to the Kindle long ago. I.e., maybe the company held them back in order to give current owners a reason to upgrade now. I like that thought, because it’s so much less distressing than the alternative: that the company was too dense or crass to appreciate and see the need for “quality.”

By: rogerknights

rogerknights — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 06:49:04 +0000

PPS. Maybe one screen of the gadget would be covered by a thin, snap-off, touch-sensitive keyboard, similar to that of MS’s Surface. It would be a virtual nec-sessory. And maybe the other screen would be covered by a thin, snap-off, touch-sensitive “handset,” for making phone calls. (Pop-up/push-down finger loops in the back or side might help users handle it.) These covers could also function as kickstands.

It could be sold as the “Kindle Four” (!).

If Amazon does this, everyone will say, after a month, “It Was Inevitable.” (Not without Bezos, it wasn’t!!)

By: rogerknights

rogerknights — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 06:17:57 +0000

PS: Maybe Amazon is thinking of pairing this gadget with a smartphone that uses the tablet’s electronics and screen to replace most of its own, cutting its costs drastically.

If this is what it’s done, it’s done an amazing job of keeping things secret. Because this would be a Big Deal–something worth shouting about. Bezos is sure behaving as though he’s got Big News–and the stock price seems to sense (or know) that too.

By: rogerknights

rogerknights — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 06:05:46 +0000

Double-sided? Wow. At least they’re thinking different. But, as you say, one can see the downside.

What’s the upside? For users, redundancy as a fall-back–if one side goes bad, the other side can still be used.

For Amazon, upsides might be:

1. Fewer SKUs for Amazon to cope with. The separate RSK and Tablet lines would be gone–buyers would get both.

2. Reduced costs from having only one battery, charger, casing, and even processor and memory bank (?) per pair, instead of two. So buyers could be tempted by getting both at only a 50% cost increase, not a 100% increase. A lot of people want both devices—maybe 50% of current RSKs would like and/or would benefit from a tablet, and 50% of tablet owners would like / benefit from an RSK (?).

3. An opportunity to make money on sales of an essential accessory sleeve / kickstand / holder combo (?). (Here’s a neologism: nec-sessory: a necessary accessory.)

This “combo” topic is one where sufficient ingenuity hasn’t been employed to date, in order to mitigate the downsides you mentioned. I have a few innovative ideas on the topic. But they’re secret. I’ll see if Amazon has employed them in its accessory. I’ll be impressed if they have—then the company will have a clear winner.