Online retail giant Amazon (AMZN) is known for its internal hardware, and for the Fire operating system (OS) that runs it. But there is a chance that the next Amazon tablet could feature something completely different: an Android OS built in. Investors did not seem particularly happy about this, however, and sent Amazon shares sliding nearly 2% in Wednesday morning’s trading.
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Reports note that, not only will the new tablet boast a whole new operating system, but also, it will be a “higher-end” tablet, suggesting a significant performance upgrade. Currently, Amazon’s tablets run on what is known as a “forked” version of Android, which means that any apps made for the tablet have to be compatible with FireOS, and be distributed on the Amazon App Store. But with a tablet that runs strictly on Android, a whole new range of apps could be made available for Amazon tablets.
Since this is a higher-end tablet, though, it will also come with a pretty hefty price tag. New reports suggest that this tablet will run about $400, a far cry from the $230 Amazon charged for the Fire Max 11. Though for those watching their budgets more closely, Amazon already plans some new devices running Vega, a Linux-based platform that Amazon uses in some of the Fire TV devices.
A Raftload of Recalls
But Amazon also offered word about several recalls of products sold on its site. The recalls impact about 190,000 total products, and cover a wide range of product classes from wireless power banks to a certain kind of hair dryer.
The devices represent a range of different threats, from electrocution risk to “…potential child poisoning.” For instance, a hair dryer from Empower Brands apparently lacks an “immersion protection device,” which means that the hair dryer could cause electrocution if it were ever dropped into water that someone was standing in. Amazon actually has a recall page, so more information on getting refunds and finding out if your purchases were impacted should be available therein.
Is Amazon a Good Long-Term Investment?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on AMZN stock based on 44 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 26.59% rally in its share price over the past year, the average AMZN price target of $264.56 per share implies 18.67% upside potential.
