For a product that doesn’t exist, whose arrival date is undetermined, that doesn’t have a name, that doesn’t even have official confirmation of its existence from the company supposedly making it, the Amazon tablet is a HUGE HIT! Forrester Research is estimating that the allegedly impending Amazon tablet could sell 5 million units in the 4th quarter of this year. That depends on the price point coming in at $300 or less, which would be bonkers cheap for a tablet. So cheap, in fact, that whoever made such a thing would likely lose money on each sale. EXACTLY. Amazon is historically willing to take a loss on sales in order to expand reach and lead to other sales. The Kindle is screamingly cheap for what it does but what it does is motivate you to buy more e-books from, guess who, Amazon. The new tablet would reportedly run on Android and Amazon has had an Android app store up and running for a while. Remember, while every other tablet maker has drowned this year trying to measure up to the iPad, Amazon has done just fine with the Kindle. If they make what’s essentially a tablet Kindle that functions as a computer AND can keep being a Kindle, it’s not likely that they’d hurt Apple’s iPad but they could live alongside it quite comfortably.
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