The latest report from DigiTimes suggest that Amazon has suspended production of an 8.9" tablet and offer a new 10.1" quad-core tablet in the fall.
The new "Hollywood" Kindle Fire 1o.1"tablet is expected to launch in the third quarter in time for the holiday shopping season. It will compete directly with the iPad market.
Amazon is one of the few competitors that can compete with iPad because of its ability to provide content. An other feature that Amazon does well is it knocks down the price as low as possible because it makes most of its profits not from the tablet itself but from the sale of books and content.
So far no manufacturer has been able to price a new 10 inch tablet below $200 when and if that happens it will be a gold mine for the provider.
When the 10" HP TouchPad cost a mere cost $99 during its fire sale it sold-out in record time and brought down websites. MacConnection and PCConnectionExpress are showing refurbished 32GB Wi-FI HP TouchPads in stock for $209 with free shipping which is the cheapest we've seen, recently, for a tablet in the 10 inch realm.
The reported noted a source that estimate "Including shipments of an entry-level as well as an advanced 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon is expected to ship 30-40 million tablet PCs in 2012"