Amazon Tablet Rumors Heat Up

Recent polls and surveys from the consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo indicate that consumers are more than ready Amazon.com to give Apple’s iPad a run for its money this fall when it releases a low-cost alternative tablet computer.  About 55 percent of  the 1,000 shoppers surveyed expressed their preference for an Amazon tablet.  If the table actually is released this fall as rumored, it will most likely be powered by Google’s Android OS/Honeycomb.

The Wall Street Journal predicts that Amazon is going to launch an Android tablet featuring a 9-inch screen that automatically links users to Amazon’s growing stash of media content, including Amazon MP3s and its proprietary Cloud Player, and Amazon Instant Video. Industry watchers expect Amazon’s pricing for this new device to be as low as $250 — or half the price for the current low-end configuration of Apple’s iPad 2.

“If Amazon really does get into the tablet market with a less expensive Android tablet this fall, it will be a game changer.”  said Niema Coltsenburg, analyst for SuperiorTinyThings.

Apparently, consumers outside the narrow group surveyed and polled seem to indicate that a sub-$300 priced tablet, and its being from Amazon.com, would be the deciding factors for them in choosing Amazon’s tablet over the iPad.  Still, many only said they would buy it if were less than $250, while still others were drawn to the mythical and unreleased tablet so long as its pricing falls beneath $400.  This is quite a range of responses.

Apple would need to reconsider its current pricing scheme if these predictions turn out to be true.  It is already well known that the iPad2 costs Apple only about $335 to manufacture, yet the entry level model costs $499 with prices topping out at nearly $900.  The profit margins as you can imagine are huge, but Amazon stands to exceed that owing to it’s more strategic and advantageous position as the world’s leading online retailer for a wide variety of products.

Whether it all turns out to be true is still up for grabs, but Apple CEO Steve Jobs today hinted that the long awaited iPhone 5 will indeed be ready to roll in September along with iOS 5.