I once spent time (and money) on an MBA course and one of the most important things I learnt was that almost anything can be portrayed on a 2D matrix. So here, tablets and eReaders are shown in their own 2D-matrix world1. So where will we find the new Amazon Android Tablet - perhaps it might be called the KindleTab?
In the middle, that's where.
It's where they all want to be if they want to make serious money. Steve Jobs has shown us the way by positioning the iPad short on features - for instance the rear camera is tiny and the iPad without its dock lacks any significant connection options like HDMI. But he's also unsettled the opposition by undercutting them on screen resolution thus allowing Apple to set the iPad at a price that other manufacturers found hard to follow.
In a homage to the Steve Jobs, Amazon are hoping to repeat the Apple's trick of doing less than expected, but doing it very well. In part this is an acknowledgment of the principle that on a "map" like this, not that much money is made by products that position themselves too near the edge. As it says in the bottom left, "Thar be monsters here". But actually many manufacturers have also been dipping their toes in the water far too close to the top right of the map. Thar be monster there as well, as it turns out. Look, for instance at the LG Optimus Pad, which, for a frightening price, offers 3D video - a feature that has turned out not to be attractive enough.
While it seems that Apple think the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is too close, it has got more features and a better screen moving it up to the right.
Of course, over time, we can expect a gradual migration towards the spot that Samsung have chosen for the Galaxy 10.1. But Amazon are being careful not to move too quickly.
So the Kindle Tab will be aiming to avoid all these dangerous places and to offer a product which is rather more Kindle and less Tab than many of us were expecting. Pixels and cameras are being rationed to offer a product that will sell big - but for a quite a small price.
1The axes in this 2D-matrix world are "screen quality" and "features". But what of price, I hear you muttering. Ah, yes, but that would be a third dimension. While at the time of a history A-level there may have been five reasons for everything (for instance the Russian Revolution), by the time you reach the dizzying heights of an MBA, simplification is everything. The aim is to "cut through the dross" so as to be able to present to a board member a concise summary of how he can make money without troubling him with any tricky or numerate concepts like a third dimension...
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