> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://spyglass.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Amazon Comes to Kill the iPad Again - URL: https://spyglass.org/amazon-alexa-tablets-ipad/ - Published: 2026-10-08T18:41:46.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T18:47:23.000Z - Description: 'Alexa Tablets' put out the 'Fire Tablets', finally... - Author: M.G. Siegler - Tags: amazon, fire tablet, alexa, alexa+, ipad, apple, tech, panos panay, android, google, play store, samsung, microsoft, meta 🔗 Amazon’s Alexa Tablets Are Coming for the iPad • Verge They say things come in twos. Or is it threes. [Or fours](https://spyglass.org/tech-hollywood-villain/)? Whatever they say, just a day after Microsoft [unveiled](https://spyglass.org/microsoft-surface-laptop-pro-ai-nvidia/) their new Surface Laptop Ultra meant to take on and out the MacBook Pro, here's Amazon with a new take on tablets to take out the iPad. As David Pierce reports: > Amazon is launching a new lineup of tablets that bear almost no resemblance to any tablet Amazon has ever launched before. They’re not even called Fire, the name Amazon has used for its tablets for the last 15 years. They’re called Alexa Tablets, and they’re designed to do two things: bring Alexa Plus to the center of your whole computing life, and be straight-up excellent tablets. As someone who was all over the early existence and development of the Fire tablets – first [the rumor of the project](https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/27/amazon-android-tablet/?ref=spyglass.org), then [a confirmation with an stealthy hands-on](https://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/amazon-kindle-tablet/?ref=spyglass.org) (!), then [the name](https://techcrunch.com/2011/09/26/amazon-kindle-fire/?ref=spyglass.org), etc – let me just say: *finally*. 15 years ago, before the actual launch, [I wrote that](https://techcrunch.com/2011/07/13/amazon-tablet-android/?ref=spyglass.org) the device would be no threat to Apple, but a huge one to Google. And that proved largely true. With all due respect to Samsung, the iPad remains the only real tablet game in town. And yes, Amazon may have effectively killed any prospects of Google themselves competing in the market. Why? First and foremost, their dirt-cheap Fire tablet prices mixed with their little website that can push any product to the masses. And so if you were looking for a cheap tablet, Android was your OS, and Amazon was your guy. The only problem was that those Fire tablets were largely bad. Again, it's hard to complain too much given how cheap they were. But, as they also say, you get what you pay for. Maybe they were fine as more durable tablets for kids, but in no way were they a good experience. Despite many iterations. That's not how Panos Panay [likes to roll](https://spyglass.org/remarkable-alexa-event/) so... > The most important thing about these new tablets’ software? They run Android. Full, Google Play-supported, all-the-apps Android. There are plenty of preloaded Amazon apps, of course, and some built-in ways to quickly access Prime Video content or shop for basically anything anywhere at any time, but it’s finally offering a proper Android experience. Panos Panay, Amazon’s SVP in charge of all things hardware and Alexa, tells me that “Google Play was a necessity, end of story.” Gone is Amazon's forked Android app store and experience, in is... well it just sounds a lot like Android + Alexa+. And you know what, even on paper, that's already more compelling than the previous version of the Fire tablets. But that's also clearly not enough for Panay: > But Panay picked Android as the *second* most important thing about the Alexa Tablet. The first, he says, is the hardware. The Alexa Tablet is two and a half years in the making, Panay says, and he directed the team to start completely fresh in their tablet design. “Start from zero, don’t use any components we’ve ever used,” he says he told them. “Just ask, what is it? What is a great piece of hardware and what is it supposed to do?” Yes, he would love for this to be an iPad-killer. I mean obviously – *obviously* – it's not going to be that. Because as everyone, [including Panay](https://spyglass.org/alexa-plus-ai-amazon/), knows, half of the key to the iPad is that developers bought in to making experiences for the iPad. Sure, it took Meta 15 years to launch Instagram for iPad, but even they eventually had to do it. And now they're rocking-and-rolling with iPad development for Muse taking [a whole 30 days](https://x.com/mgsiegler/status/2107874390465819047?ref=spyglass.org). And Meta hates Apple. It doesn't matter, you play the game on the field. And the only real game in tablet town remains the iPad. So the question is if these new Amazon *Alexa* Tablets can do what the previous Android tablets [never could](https://spyglass.org/so-dramatic/#:~:text=%F0%9F%A4%96%20Amazon%E2%80%99s%20New%20Fire%20Tablets%20Have%20AI%20Inside) in tailoring software for the form-factor. I remain skeptical of that but perhaps stock Android plus some good Amazon + Alexa+ (as well as Prime Video) integration will be good enough? Oh, and there are *three* flavors of these Alexa Tablets – again, things come in threes: > There are three devices in the Alexa Tablet lineup, all of which go on sale October 14th. The Tablet 8 has an 8.7-inch screen, starts at $229.99, and seems mostly designed for reading; the Tablet 11 has an 11-inch screen, starts at $329.99, and is more for watching stuff. They’re aimed squarely at the iPad Mini and base iPad, and seem nice enough. But the biggest device in the lineup, the one Panay really wants to tell me about, is the one he thinks really shows off what Amazon is doing here. > > It’s called the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, and it starts at $499\. It’s 6.5mm thick and weighs 550 grams — a little thicker and a little lighter than the latest [13-inch iPad Pro](https://www.theverge.com/tech/803105/apple-ipad-pro-2025-review-fast-faster-fastest?ref=spyglass.org) — and comes with either 8 or 16 gigs of RAM and either 128 or 256 gigs of storage. It runs a MediaTek Dimensity 8400 processor, a chip you might have found in a high-end phone a year or so ago. All these specs are… fine. Good enough to run an Android tablet, but nothing to write home about. > > The feature that really matters, Panay says, is the screen. Panay has this concept of the “one thing,” a single feature on a product that absolutely cannot be compromised on, no matter what. Make tradeoffs where you need to, he tells his team, but not on the one thing. “And the one thing on this product was, let’s go make the perfect screen.” Honestly, those first two still sound pretty cheap-ish. The 'Pro' model sounds better but per Pierce, the specs are just... "fine". The screen – namely the fact that it's a matte texture – [sounds interesting](https://www.theverge.com/tech/1007473/amazon-alexa-tablet-12-pro-nanomatte-hands-on?ref=spyglass.org), but Apple has that as well for the iPad Pro. Yes, that device is far more expensive, but it's an insanely powerful machine. It's far more powerful than [my MacBook Neo](https://spyglass.org/macbook-neo-thoughts/) – even if the iPadOS software is annoyingly still [held back](https://spyglass.org/mac-jr/) for... [reasons](https://spyglass.org/macos-on-the-ipad/)? Reasons we're [about to see](https://spyglass.org/touchscreen-macbook-toaster-fridge/)... So what it sounds like Amazon is aiming for here is sort of an iPad Pro Lite. But again, it runs Android and more to the point, Android apps so... good luck with that. The Alexa+ deep integration sounds interesting, but Alexa+ also sounds [less interesting](https://spyglass.org/broken-alexa-plus/) – quite literally – [by the day](https://www.theverge.com/tech/1007565/amazon-alexa-plus-review-one-year-echo-show-dot-max?ref=spyglass.org) as AI agentic assistants [swarm](https://spyglass.org/thoughts-on-the-great-ai-agent-race-a-super-ai-rebrand-attempt/) the space. Wait a minute. Is Amazon about to launch [an Alexa *Phone* ](https://spyglass.org/amazon-fire-phone-reborn-for-ai/)to go with their Alexa Tablets? I mean... certainly don't rule it out! Even if [they don't ](https://spyglass.org/amazon-phone-home/)call it [a phone](https://spyglass.org/there-is-no-phone/). 👇 ****Previously, on** ***Spyglass** **...** [Microsoft Comes to Kill the MacBook AgainCan the ‘Surface Laptop Ultra’ use AI capabilities and NVIDIA to end the reign of the MacBook Pro? I mean…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/icon/Spyglass-Rings-----Multi-92ff30a2-0ff3-4093-977f-c0f68bc70983.png)SpyglassM.G. Siegler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-2026-10-08-at-12.20.40---PM-1-d3e297e7-ef60-4413-8e98-904066c31e0e.png)](https://spyglass.org/microsoft-surface-laptop-pro-ai-nvidia/) [Amazon’s Novel Approach to a Newfangled AI Device: a Phone?It’s perhaps not as crazy as it sounds. Just don’t say “Fire Phone”…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/icon/Spyglass-Rings-----Multi-de389865-7f06-49e7-88c5-484c2f2565f1.png)SpyglassM.G. Siegler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/thumbnail/mgs_an_amazon_phone_cartoon_--ar_169_--v_7_5cdfc1b8-e548-4ad5-9f11-fbabbe5ceec5_2-1-15ec3f9d-3a11-4854-af92-4811d1d418ca.png)](https://spyglass.org/amazon-fire-phone-reborn-for-ai/) [Amazon Phones HomeDo Panos Panay’s verbal gymnastics stick the landing?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/icon/Spyglass-Rings-----Multi-be6ff4b3-6d33-4e83-8dca-6ca68cb8e2f7.png)SpyglassM.G. Siegler![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/ca/afcaa655-46e2-45b8-889a-2881de5cce69/content/images/thumbnail/ChatGPT-Image-May-13--2026--12_02_30-PM-fa7b7126-889b-4ad7-9f7c-415adf246131.png)](https://spyglass.org/amazon-phone-home/)