Tesco Tablet?

[nannynick]

Tech news is full of speculation that Tesco will release their own brand Tablet tomorrow (23 Sept 2013).

Looks like it will compete head on with Kindle Fire (currently on sale via Tesco.com for £99) in terms of price.

Blinkbox and BlinkboxMusic already have Android Apps.
Clubcard TV has just released an Android App GooglePlayStore

Mobcast is Blinkbox Books www.blinkboxbooks.com/ which is in development. TescoeBooks.com goes to a MobCast owned site.

So the speculation that a tablet is to be announced tomorrow sounds quite likely to be true... time will tell, not long to wait.

If you are thinking of buying a tablet and considering the Kindle Fire, will you consider a Tesco own brand version?

Branding wouldn't bother me, would depend upon specs...

Tesco customer service would put me off

Oh yeah, I forgot they're pretty poop, aren't they?

It is now official. Hudl tablet launched by Tesco.

Seems similar spec to latest KindleFire.

If tesco can give good customer service like Amazon then it may make an impact on tablet market. Wonder who it is aimed at.

It's a stupid name, but it'll be interesting to see how it is

Reading a bit more I'm actually quite impressed. I've been looking for a decent 7" Android tablet, shall have to have a look in my local shop, hopefully they'll have a display model.

Will it get apps via the App Store or be locked into the brand like the fire? I'm off to have a google.

Tesco says in it's press release that "Hudl combines the best of Tesco with the Android Jellybean 4.2.2 operating system meaning that customers can access everything on Google and over a million apps."

So I would take that to mean that it will use Google Play Store. Then there will be some Tesco Apps, which are already on the Google Play Store (so anyone could use them) like BlinkBox, BlinkBox Music, Clubcard TV, Tesco App (for online ordering), Tesco Discover, Tesco Photo. Tesco Apps List
Some of the apps seem to be designed for phones, so some may get a redesign for better appearance on tablet. BlinkboxBooks I suspect will be added later in the year or early next year.

Looking at screen shots from TheNextWeb Hands On Test (contains some nice pictures) it looks as if there may be a particular app that is used for all Tesco things on the tablet. Hard to tell though, it may just be a navigation aid which then loads the individual app.

Tomorrow (Tuesday 24 Sept) Tesco launch a new marketing offer... 50% off BlinkBox prepaid cards - for Movie rentals - which will run for a limited period. Marketing Week article. This may help drive sales of the new tablet (on which Tesco will make some profit) plus promote the services Tesco provide under their 80% owning of BlinkBox Entertainment.

However it may not be about making money for them - it may be about covering costs but making more people aware of the services they provide (giving a special T button to click to get quick access to Tesco owned/part-owned services) and making tablets in general more popular, especially for families with young children.

Looking at the press release, on first starting the tablet it will come up with some details about using multiple profiles so children have their own, the importance of setting passwords for app purchases/in-app purchases.

I think the name is derived from HUDl as in 'heads up display' don't know what the 'L' would mean.

Personally i'm not impressed. Its just another android tablet, that is actually running out of date software, you can probably update, but you may run into issues as with updating all OS's.

Don't forget this is Tesco, so like all other tablet manufacturers the empahsis will be on making money so it will be aimed at providing easy access to tesco products. Being Tesco the coverage they have i can see this shifting a fair amount of units.

considering the price its also worth looking at other manufacturers.