Amazon Announces New "Alexa Tablets" with Google Play — Calling Time on the Amazon Appstore

What happened

Amazon has announced a new family of Android-based tablets, dubbed the Amazon Alexa Tablets range — and in doing so has signaled defeat in its attempts to wrest any appreciable share of the mobile app market from industry giant Google. Since launching its first Kindle Fire tablets, in partnership with Quanta Computer, in 2011, Amazon has used Google's Android as a base but without the Google Play Services and Google Play Store. Google is an Internet and software company based in Mountain View, and its products and services include Google Voice.

Amazon's latest Android-powered tablets come with Google Play Services and the Play Store as standard, leaving the Amazon Appstore bereft. "The all-new lineup includes three models: Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, Amazon Alexa Tablet 11, and Amazon Alexa Tablet 8." While Amazon's announcement makes much of the tablets' integration with Alexa+, its next-generation large language model (the kind of AI system trained on text to produce text)-powered voice assistant system, there's a much bigger piece to the story: the tacit admission of defeat in the mobile app market.

Key facts

• Amazon has — announced: a new family of Android-based tablets, dubbed the Amazon Alexa Tablets range — and in doing so has signaled defeat in its attempts to wrest any appreciable share of the mobile app market from industry giant Google
• "The all-new lineup — includes: three models: Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, Amazon Alexa Tablet 11, and Amazon Alexa Tablet 8."