The days of Amazon being known as a bookseller or a retail giant might be coming to a close. Oh, of course they’ll still be both of those, but we might start thinking about the company more along the lines of tech giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.
The company unveiled its Kindle Fire tablet and some new Kindles this week, along with a new innovative web browser called Silk.
Now, VentureBeat is reporting that HP is looking to unload Palm ASAP and that Amazon is the “closest to finalizing the deal.” This comes from what the publication cites as “a well-placed source”.
Such an acquisition could give Amazon an operating system in webOS. The Kindle Fire is built on Android and utilizes Amazon’s own Android market, but if Amazon gets webOS, there’s no telling where this could go.
Speaking of the Kindle Fire, some questions have been brought into the spotlight regarding the device’s supply and demand. It only costs $199. Reuters quotes analyst Brian Blair as saying, “When [Amazon CEO, Jeff] Bezos quipped that people should get their pre-orders in quick, that wasn’t just a sales pitch. That was him warning this will sell out.”
Digitimes systems is reporting that Amazon will outsource the production of 10.1 inch tablets to Foxconn electronics, which works on the iPad, as well as Amazon’s Kindle e-readers. Such tablets, it says, are expected to ship before the end of the year. The announced Kindle Fire is a 7 inch tablet.