Tesco’s New Tablet is Expected to Launch Next Week
Rumors have been circulating for the past month that the UK retailer Tesco planned to launch their own Android tablet, and now it seems those rumors are about to come true.
Tesco is reportedly sending out press invites today for an event next week. No one really knows what the event will be about, but some are speculating that Tesco will unveil their tablet:
Tesco will unveil a new device – expected to be a low-priced own-brand entry into the tablet market – on 23 September. It has sent out invitations using the phrase "We’ve got something to show you" and using Tesco’s new "Hudl" trademark.
I tend to think the speculation is correct, though of course no one yet knows for sure. Tesco has been investing in selling digital content for several years now, and releasing a tablet would be the logical next step.
Last September Tesco bought Mobcast, a white-label ebookstore provider. Tesco had previously made investments in the Blinkbox video service and We7, a music service (aka Blinkbox Music). Mobcast has since been renamed Blinkbox Books in March of this year when Tesco announced the expansion of Blinkbox. Tesco has also reportedly been signing new deals to expand its paltry 130,000 title catalog with plans for a showy launch around Christmas time.
And today it looks like that rumored Christmas launch may be happening next week. Blinkbox Books hasn’t actually launched yet as an ebookstore, so there is a good chance that it too will be unveiled next week.
The latest predictions from industry analysts say that the Tesco tablet will be a subsidized device with a price tag between £99 and £129. Of course, that is merely speculation; at this point we don’t know know for sure that the tablet exists, much less its price.
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