Amazon is reportedly planning to beef up its rumored tablet with a huge offering of content. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Amazon is currently discussing pricing options with magazine and newspaper publishers for both single-issues and subscriptions on its tablet.
If Amazon is able to launch the tablet along with subscriptions, it will have launched this type of service more quickly than Apple. The iPad maker didn't roll out subscriptions on the iPad until February, almost a year after it launched the first-generation version of its tablet.
Even after Apple unveiled iOS subscriptions, publishers were hesitant to sign up to the platform, which provides that Apple take a 30 percent cut of all subscription sales purchased within the app. Subscriptions offered through the App Store must also be offered at the same price. Big name publishing companies finally began to bend to Apple's will and offer subscriptions starting with Hearst and Conde Nast in May.
Amazon has yet to actually announce its tablet, but its widely rumored that it will run on the Android platform, feature a 7-inch display, and come with a price lower than $300, allowing it to compete with Apple's market-dominating iPad, which starts at $499.
It's also likely that Amazon would attempt to undercut Apple with the prices of subscriptions, selling the magazines and newspapers at a lower rate, and possibly offering publishers more favorable terms, eWeek has predicted.
The WSJ also speculated that Amazon will integrate content from Amazon Prime into its tablet. For $79 a year, Prime subscribers get unlimited two-day shipping and a limited selection of streaming TV shows and movies through Amazon Instant Video. The Journal said that with a tablet, it would expand Prime to include books.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment about the tablet or an accompanying subscription platform.