Here is some more news coming from Taiwan about the upcoming Amazon tablet that is believed will be ready by Q3 2011. The latest that we have heard about the elusive tablet is that it’s the Taiwan based TFT-LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes, or CPT, that has emerged as the sole supplier of touch panels to be used for the Amazon tablets. However, that’s not before E Ink Holdings ploughed about $52m into CPT, a strategic move on part of E-Ink aimed at acquiring the rights to use CPT’s 6th-gen production line.
E Ink Holdings is the biggest supplier of electrophoretic display, or EPD e-paper, that goes into the making of the Kindle e-book reader. However,  E-Ink’s Fringe Field Switching (FFS display technology) that was slated to be used to make the Amazon tablet’s touch panels. For comparison’s sake, IPS panels make up the display of the best selling iPad 2 and the Eee Pad Transformer tablet PC. E Ink’s FFS (fringe field switching) might still be used to make the Amazon tablets.
Among other news, Quanta Computer will take care of the entire assembly process of the tablets, while supplying ITO touch modules to be used in Glass on Glass (G/G) touch panels has been entrusted to Wintek. However, before that, CPT will provide the touch sensors to J Touch for the latter to be able to make the touch modules. 7 inch G/G touch panels will be used to make the display of the tablet codenamed Coyote. Also, numbers are already into millions, as no less than 2.0 to 2.4 million touch panels are expected to be shipped by the end of September, with Wintek alone making up 70 to 75 percent of the volume.
As for the bigger 10 inch tablet codenamed Hollywood, the new NVIDIA quadcore Kal-El chipset might be seen in action. Number wise, the Hollywood can also be counted in millions as the tablet is expected to make up the remainder of the 4 millions tablets slated to be shipped by end of this year.
In the meantime, consumers have shown a clearly positive desire for a tablet from Amazon, as has been revealed in a survey by Retrevo Labs, which is a part of the electronics shopping site Retrevo. Of the nearly 1,000 US consumers polled, 50 percent have voted in favor of the iPad. However, keeping the Apple tablet out, 55 percent have shown interest in a tablet from Amazon. Dell and Samsung come in at second with 38 percent favor, while the third spot goes to Motorola and HP with 31 percent support.
Another important aspect that has emerged in the survey is that price is a prime factor for determining the purchase of a particular tablet brand. Let’s hope Amazon plays the price just right, which is something they have proven to master.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
