Many have tried, but none have succeeded in their efforts to gain ground on the Apple iPad in the tablet computer market. Since it's release in April of 2010, the iPad has sold some 29 million units worldwide and taken up residence at the top of the tablet computer market like Manchester United in an English Premier League standings table.
This is not to say there haven't been at least somewhat reasonable alternatives to emerge in the eighteen months since the iPad's release. Sure there's been the Samsung Galaxy, the Motorola Xoom and the HP TouchPad. All of which are perfectly adequate tablets that can do most of what the iPad can do and in some cases, more. However thus far, no tablet has succeeded in capturing the imagination (and the money) of the tablet buying public like the iPad.
Until now that is maybe, at least according to analysts.
According to a report from Reuters, Amazon is making ready to release the Kindle Fire Tablet, which will be an affordably priced alternative to the iPad that insiders are predicting will resonate with consumers. Writing the for the blog TechCrunch, MG Siegler revealed that the Fire will be a seven inch backlit tablet that will resemble the Blackberry PlayBook, run on Android and feature a touch screen.
However there is one feature in particular that analysts think will enable the Fire to heat things up for the iPad in the tablet market: it's price.
Currently rumors are floating that the device will be available for between $250 and $300 dollars, which either way, makes it a couple hundred dollars less than even the cheapest iPads.
In addition to it's competitive price, analysts estimate that users will also be drawn like moths to the Kindle's Flame due to the enormous amount of movie, television and music media services available from Amazon. Part of the alleged angle on Amazon making the Fire available for so little, is the company's ability to be able to recoup on cloud and content services marketed to Fire users.
Of course as of now, it's anybody's guess what the outcome will be of Kindle entering the tablet market. The Samsung Galaxy is selling poorly and HP just announced that they would be discontinuing their tablet. So whether the Fire will actually succeed in turning up the heat on Apple or wind up as just another also-ran, struggling in the middle part of the tablet table, only time will tell.
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