Amazon Android tablet set for Q4 splash amid rumours of iPad price war

Forrester thinks Amazon could shift up to five million tablets this side of Christmas.

Amazon could sell between three and five million Android tablets in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Forrester Research. The company has been strongly tipped to release its own Google-powered slate this year, and Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps thinks it will be well positioned to compete with Apple's iPad.

"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," she writes. "If Amazon launches a tablet at a sub-$300 price point — assuming it has enough supply to meet demand — we see Amazon selling 3-5 million tablets in Q4 alone."

Epps also predicts that Amazon's entry into the tablet market will make Apple "prepare for war", straining the relationship between the two companies - and it's already fraught thanks to Apple barring native iOS apps from selling content from external web stores.

"A year from now, “Amazon” will be synonymous with “Android” on tablets, a strong second to Apple’s iPad," claims Epps.

The question is whether Amazon will hit a sub-$300 price point, of course. That suggestion has been bolstered by a separate story in the New York Post, which claims Amazon will launch its device in late September or early October, and that the device will "sell for hundreds less than the entry-point $499 iPad".