Dive Brief:

• Amazon will release a $50 tablet this fall as the company continues assembling an education team.
• The company’s devices have struggled to find a foothold, but this one's low price may make it a prime candidate to market to schools, according to EdSurge.
• The tablet will feature a six-inch screen, similar to an iPhone, but no details are available on its other features.

Dive Insight:

Though the market for tech-driven education tools is growing, tablets and other hardware have proven to be a challenging investment. Amplify’s tablets notably floundered, and other education-specific tablets have largely failed to live up to their potential. Combine that with the fact that small, affordable tablets have struggled against flashier competitors, and Amazon’s tablet, if it is indeed marketed to schools, could face a hard road.

Amazon has, however, made inroads in the education market with some success. Whispercast, the company’s content management system, is reportedly used by many big districts, and its education team has grown following the acquisition of TenMarks — a digital, Common Core-aligned math instruction startup — two years ago.