Amazon making a $50 tablet

In the wake of the utter failure of the Amazon Fire phone, the major retailer needs one of their home grown tech creations to hit with audiences. And they’re betting a rock bottom price will do just that.

The Wall Street Journal has the inside scoop that Amazon will release yet another tablet before the end of 2015, with the unique selling point being its price - just $50. That puts it into a whole different category of devices, something people are more likely to purchase on a whim and to use in a more casual fashion without worrying too much about it breaking.

They’ve also heard that the device could measure in at 6 inches, which is smaller than some phablets out there and not much larger than phones like the Xperia Z5 Premium. In terms of their current hardware, the Fire HD 6 tabletis the same size and retails for $100. It has a HD screen, 8 gigs of storage, a quad core CPU and two cameras.

It’s reasonable to assume that the new device will be a little lower in spec, perhaps removing one or both the cameras and dropping the screen resolution. Considering these devices are primarily aimed at reading books, watching video and browing the internet Amazon has a good amount of latitude to lower to make the tablet a bit less impressive in certain areas.

Or will they go a different tack? Maybe Amazon wants to really impress its users by offering a surprisingly fast tablet for a very low cost. Given the recent losses by the failed Fire phone project, this doesn’t seem very likely.

More info on the new Amazon tablet as we get it.