September 1, 2011
Amazon’s Android tablet device hasn’t even been announced yet and research firm Forrester is already betting on its success.
“If it’s launched at the right price with enough supply, we see Amazon’s tablet easily selling 3 million to 5 million units in Q4 alone, disrupting not only Apple’s product strategy but other tablet manufacturers’ as well,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, the report’s author.
The device, rumored to launch this October, could even kick app development for Android tablets into high gear, Epps says. Currently, estimates suggest that less than 500 apps optimized for Android tablets are available in the Android Market. By contrast, more than 100,000 apps have been built specifically for the iPad.
What is that magic price of Amazon’s tablet? Forrester says that if Amazon releases a 9-inch LCD touchscreen tablet for $299 and has enough supply to meet demand, it could outperform Apple’s first quarter with the iPad, which moved 3.27 million units.
Amazon should be able to price it that low because, like with the Kindle ereader, the company stands to profit from selling services and goods on the device, so it can afford to sell hardware at a loss, Forrester says. The lion’s share of Apple’s revenue, on the other hand, comes from sales of the iPad itself.
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