Amazon's Trojan Horse

Amazon will build an Android tablet or Android tablet OS this year.  

There, I said it.  And you know what?  They are the only ones who have a chance against the iPad.  Suck on that, Motorola.  Amazon has been slipping features to its customers on the sly lately, and it all adds up to one thing:  A full-fledged OS that can compete with iOS.

Think about it...  The one thing Apple has going for them (other than near-perfect, if underpowered, hardware) is an ecosystem.  You can buy an iPad, and never ever do anything but plug in your Apple ID.  You can buy anything you want with one password, and one login.

Apple has iTunes.  Amazon has the mp3Store.  Apple has iBooks.  Amazon has Kindle Books.  Amazon recently allowed Amazon Prime members to access thousands of streaming movies in addition to rentals and purchases.  And now, Amazon is opening an Android App Market.

If Amazon takes Android Honeycomb and skins it to their liking, they can actually compete with the two year head start Apple has with the iPad.  Plug in your amazon login and buy music (for less money), movies, stream thousands of Prime titles (goodbye Netflix?), rent TV shows, download Kindle books (with more options to read them than iBooks) and now have a curated App Marketplace with exclusive titles like Angry Birds Rio.

I think this is already in the works.  If it's not it should be.  There is no tablet out there that gets user experience, interface, and ecosystem like the iPad. iPad has nearly 85% of the market right now.  The other 15% is shared by over 80 tablets from a dozen manufacturers.  

Amazon:  just do it.  You have the money and the manpower.  Try to save Android from itself by giving devlopers and consumers a viable alternative to iOS and Apple's enormous ecosystem.