Best Buy to Release Tablet to Compete With Amazon, Apple

Best Buy is looking to turn around its ailing business by releasing a competitor to the iPad and Google Nexus 7

Best Buy is releasing its own tablet next month, thrusting the struggling electronics retailer into competition with Amazon and Apple as it attempts to turn around its withering business.

Best BuyThe Insignia Flex Tablet will go head-to-head with the Google Nexus 7 and an array of Samsung devices already powered by the same Android software. The company announced the tablet on its Facebook page last Thursday.

Though Best Buy has not yet named a price for the tablet, a Reuters report citing unnamed sources on Tuesday said that it would cost between $239 and $259.

A spokeswoman for Best Buy did not immediately return calls from TheWrap requesting comment on the price.

The device runs on a dual-core 1GHz processor — the same used in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 — and features a 9.7" screen and 10 hours of battery life.

Also read: Best Buy Founder Richard Schulze Offers to Buy Out Ailing Company

It's slated to go on sale Nov. 11, though it's unclear if Best Buy will sell the device anywhere other than its own, dwindling number of stores.

In the past, Insignia, Best Buy's in-house brand, has produced less expensive versions of televisions, Blu-ray players and other electronics. But this is its first venture into personal computing.

The move comes two months after the company's billionaire founder, Richard Schulze, offered to buy back the public company in an attempt to revive its business model as its iconic blue-and-yellow box stores close down around the country.

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