Is the Amazon Kindle Tablet Even Trying to Compete with the iPad?
It's an interesting - and unanswered - question. With all the excitement about Amazon's new Kindle Tablet being launched, the conventional wisdom seems to be that Amazon's purpose in creating the tablet is to go into head-to-head competition with Apple's iPad.
That may well not be the case. 
There isn't a lot known about the Kindle Tablet yet. After all, its official announcement isn't until the 28th of September.
But we do know a few things - and those are exactly the pieces of information that raise the question of whether Amazon is even interested in playing on the iPad's playing field.
The Amazon Kindle Tablet - What We Know So Far
According to TechCrunch, the Amazon Kindle (because it's going to have the same name) will have a 7-inch, backlit, full color screen and run on an Amazon-customized version of Google's Android system. Google won't be anywhere in the vicinity - except when you're looking at external search (Amazon has its own internal search for your content) and the only Android Apps that will be in play will be those that are available through Amazon's App Store system.
Because that's what's really going on - and the reason that the question of competitive positioning even exists.
Amazon's Kindle is designed specifically to keep you in Amazon's ecosystem - with Amazon content and the Amazon cloud service. In fact, as you read the various write-ups about what it will look like and how it will operate, other than price, there's very little talk about it being in direct competition with the iPad.
The price for the Kindle, is expected to be $250 - $299 as compared to iPad's entry level price of $499.
So where's the competition? With the Barnes & Noble Nook. Not the iPad.
Which takes us back to probably the biggest misunderstanding of product positioning and what's going on in the tablet space.
Apple's Enterprise Strategy
Apple has been trying to get into the mainstream enterprise space for years. Sure it was a favorite of the media types - but that was never enough for Steve Jobs. It was always his intent that Apple have a major presence in business.
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