Amazon to Kindle Fire in OS Wars by Buying HP TouchPad webOS?

Amazon is learning from the HP TouchPad fire sale by pricing its Amazon Kindle Fire at a super low price and also may even buy the operating system from HP.  The sale is a family affair.  The Amazon Kindle Fire is on presale from Amazon and will be released on November 15.  The HP TouchPad was liquidated in August.

VentureBeat reported that Amazon is closest to make a deal to buy Palm and webOS software.  Palm's former CEO Jon Rubinstein is on the Amazon board.   Rubenstein told Joshua Toplosky, in July that Amazon would make a "great partner' to expand webOS devices.  The operating system was created by Palm for the launch of the Palm Pre and can also run on smartphones.

We also learned, today, that the same company that makes the BlackBerry PlayBook makes the Amazon Kindle Fire.  Amazon appears to have learned from the PlayBook's  technology and poor sales. Both the Kindle Fire and the PlayBook are manufactured by Taiwanese electronics contract manufacturer Quanta Computer Inc.  The PlayBook 16GB  is was priced at $499 when it was released and slashed to $299, yesterday at Best Buy.  It is rumored that RIM stopped production of the PlayBook.  The Amazon Kindle Fire costs more to make than its $199 price tag.  The real benefit to Amazon is that it acts as cash register to buy more Amazon goods.

The HP TouchPad became the most desirable tablet in August when the price was dropped to $99 for the 16 GB model and $149 for the 32GB model.  On Tuesday, the TouchPad was back in the news when a sale to employees was plagued with technical glitches while employees spent most of the day trying to buy TouchPads.  We suspect the same thing occurred,  yesterday. We've received many comments from HP employees who dislike the management of HP or love it.