Amazon to challenge Apple's dominance over tablet market
30 Aug 2011
Apple's dominance over the tablet market is likely to be challenged by a formidable opponent, as Amazon.com, the world's largest online retailer, plans to launch its own tablets, using Google's Android platform, later this year.
Amazon is expected to introduce its tablet, based on Google's Android Honeycomb operating system, in October. Its success, however, will depend on the pricing. According to analysts, if Amazon sells its iPad version at a price below $300, it should be able to break Apple's stranglehold on the market.
"Even though Amazon taking on Apple is a bit like David taking on Goliath (compare the market cap, profits and cash position of the two companies), Amazon's willingness to sell hardware at a loss combined with the strength of its brand, content, cloud infrastructure and commerce assets makes it the only credible iPad competitor in the market," Sarah Rotman Epps, senior analyst with Forrester Research, wrote in the company blog.
Epps, who was the first to predict in March that Amazon would come out its own iPad later this year, says that if it prices its tablet at less than $300, it would be able to sell up to five million units in the fourth-quarter of the fiscal.
Apple, which recently launched a new version of its iPad, sells its tablets at prices ranging between $499 and $829. The company has so far sold 29 million iPads.
According to HIS iSuppli Market Intelligenc, an international market research firm, global tablet shipments are expected to top 60 million units this year, a huge increase from last year's 17.4 million units.
