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Amazon would be stupid to spend *billions* of dollars to try and develop a tablet to compete with Apple when: (1) established tech companies are already crashing and burning trying to compete with Apple; (2) Apple already has key components locked up in multi-year contracts; (3) Amazon has no particular expertise in this area; and (4) Amazon's content (which is what Amazon sells, after all) is already available on existing tablets.
Even if Apple drops the Kindle App, making the app available on android tablets is as good or better than selling their own tablet - and both cheaper and less risky.
The reason that Amazon came out with the Kindle is because the e-reader market at that time (mostly Sony) could only read Sony branded .lrf books. None of the e-readers would read Amazon books, so Amazon's only choice was to develop its own reader that would read its own books.
But Amazon never felt the need to develop their own MP3 player despite being the (distant) number 2 in online music sales, since all existing mp3 players could play music bought by Amazon. Since other tablets can already use Amazon's Kindle App, Amazon has no need to develop its own tablet, and would face *substantial* risks if it did so.
I mean, I'm a fan of Amazon, but I don't see the value proposition for me - what would an Amazon tablet bring me that I can't already get on an existing tablet?
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