Rumour: Amazon targets 5 million tablets

By offering tablets at a lower pricing point than the iPad, Amazon could manage to ship up to 5 million devices by the end of the year according to a research group.

There is still a fair amount of mystery surrounding Amazon’s tactile tablets, even though rumours have regularly brought new information over these last few months. One thing seems to have come through though: the online book retailer wants to ship a solid number of tablets by the end of the year.

For Forrester Research, who is basing their figures off old rumours, Amazon could ship between 3 and 5 million units by the end of the year if production can maintain the required pace and if the tablets price is significantly lower than competing products.


Amazon, the missing piece to counter iOS tablets?
In fact, Amazon is seen as one of the rare (and perhaps only) company capable of competing with Apple and their iPad. While the rest of the industry is starting to lose interest in the market, as it is too difficult to ship the required volumes, Amazon may be able to reuse the same schema which worked so successfully with their Kindle reader, while adding other services that have been developed over the last few months.

The success of Amazon’s Android tablets could also unlock dedicated applications for the tablet on the Android Market. Forrester Research believes that there are currently 300 Android applications for tablets, compared to 100 000 for the iPad.

With a few million tablets sold, Amazon would be in a better position to push developers to add to this collection. We will now have to see if it is possible to combine the success of the Kindle with the tablet format and the diverse range of functions made available by Android.