Some serious rumors are starting to emerge. Notably:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by MG Siegler
Amazon is going to launch a tablet that runs Android, but it will be fully Amazon’d. It will use Amazon’s Appstore, it will use Amazon movies, it will use Amazon books, it will use Amazon music, etc.
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http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/13/amazon-tablet-android/
Quote:
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Originally Posted by John Gruber
The gist of it they’re not planning to use a stock version of Android, but instead they’ve more or less forked the OS, using Google’s Android as a foundation for Amazon’s tablet OS.
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http://daringfireball.net/linked/201...-amazon-tablet
Sounds a lot like the WebOS idea some of us discussed in another thread, which would involve HP Amazoning their former-Palm devices to provide the content integration that, so far, only Apple has been able to provide.
Going the forked Android route may be the better option. They might not even emphasize its Android-ness (like the Nook doesn't). They'd probably only install the Amazon appstore, but most Android apps could be added to that store relatively easily. Amazon could customize and improve the OS, since the only officially-supported apps would be those in their own app store.
This sounds pretty slick--and, honestly, it sounds a lot like how I remember Android originally being pitched. It was originally supposed to be an open core that manufacturers could use to build their own OSes. It's become a full OS that manufacturers add junk to. I'm excited to see what Amazon comes up with.