The Kindle Fire: three reasons why Amazon's new tablet could be a game-changer

Firstly, Amazon is a behemoth of media world. According to Businessweek, the company is currently seeing "50 percent growth in quarterly revenues, and could reach $50 billion in sales this year". This long established commercial clout means that Amazon already has the trust- and the credit card details - of consumers all across the globe, so there is a readymade audience of people willing to buy into their brand of digital media distribution.

As the foremost global seller of eBooks and a distributor of countless other media services- cloud computing service, MP3 and video downloading included - the company is ideally positioned to become a major gateway to all kinds of media via digital platforms.

In a sense, if Amazon wished to continue growing at this exponential rate, it was imperative that it found a way to deliver digital media content direct to consumers. The tablet market is quickly becoming an important source of revenue for publishers- and Apple has been the one taking home much of the profit, thanks to its own trail-blazing tablet, the iPad, and the 30% cut it makes on app store purchases.  

The second reason to have confidence in the Amazon tablet is the fact that, whilst Apple and Amazon might begin with the same letter, they are in fact very different as businesses.  

Apple keeps profit margins high and has a price tag to match; hence its products are something of a status symbol. Amazon has always had low profit margins and this new Kindle is no exception. The tablet will resale for around $200, which is less than half the price of an entry level iPad, which means that Amazon is bringing tablet computing into the mainstream. The Kindle Fire has the potential to open the floodgates onto a new era of digital publishing; If this tablet takes off, digital subscription models will become a far more important aspect of every news organization's business model.

The third reason to take this tablet seriously: Amazon is not going away. This tablet launch is not some whimsical foray into the world of hardware production. The Kindle line is a huge, long-term investment for the company, and the range of Kindle devices is only increasing. Now there are five different types of Kindle. Five.  

The first kindle was a huge success, much to the vexation of independent bookstores everywhere.  By dropping the price of the updated Kindle eInk reader to around $80 and by releasing an affordable fully functioning tablet computer, Amazon are showing tech companies like Apple that they are playing hard-ball in the hardware game - and publishers had better pay attention too. Could Amazon lead the way to tablets becoming ubiquitous?

Sources: Bloomberg Businessweek, Editors Weblog, Gizmodo, Mashable, Poynter