IPS Tablet Display Technology Shoot-Out Amazon Kindle Fire - Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet - Apple iPad 2
Introduction A new wave of Tablets has arrived just in time for Christmas... But as we have seen many times before, most new Tablets are poorly thought out contenders that just wash away with the next wave.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is DisplayMate's second tablet screen ranking of 2011, extending the methodology from its June shoot-out of the iPad 2, Motorola Xoom, and Asus Transformer down to the new budget tier: Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet, both arriving for the holidays. The timing matters because the Fire entered the season with real momentum — an October analysis found the iPad already generating 97% of tablet web traffic but flagged early signs the Fire could do well.
The comparison also lands weeks after iFixit's Nook Tablet teardown, so both sub-$250 devices have now been opened up and measured by third parties before Christmas. That gives shoppers something the marketing does not: an independent read on whether the cheap 7-inch screens hold up next to Apple's.
First-order effects
- Holiday tablet buyers get a like-for-like display verdict across three price tiers, which directly affects which device wins the gift market — the one purchase window where the Fire and Nook Tablet compete head-to-head with the iPad 2.
- Amazon and Barnes & Noble's value pitch is now testable: if either screen measures poorly, the $199 price advantage has to carry more of the argument.
Second-order effects
- A published benchmark at the low end pressures Amazon and Barnes & Noble to specify better panels in their next hardware revisions, since screen quality becomes a comparable spec rather than a showroom impression.
- Apple's position is reinforced rather than threatened: with the iPad dominating tablet web traffic per the October data, a third-party confirmation of its display lead narrows the budget devices' differentiation to price and content ecosystems alone.
Third-order effects
- If lab-measured display quality becomes a standing review layer, panel sourcing turns into a competitive weapon for budget tablet makers, rewarding vendors with display supply-chain leverage and squeezing margins on sub-$250 hardware.
- The market is sorting into a premium tier judged on measured excellence and a content-subsidized budget tier judged on price-plus-screen adequacy — a split that determines which competitors survive the 'next wave' DisplayMate expects to wash out the poorly thought-out contenders.
The trend: Independent display benchmarking is becoming a standard purchase filter as the tablet market splits into a premium tier led by Apple and a price-led budget tier fought over by Amazon and Barnes & Noble.