Kindle Fire creates a two-horse tablet race

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is set to reignite the already fierce tablet war and potentially create a two-horse race between Amazon and Apple, according to new research.

YouGov believes that £250 is the price point where the tablet market will take off. Tablets will fail to be a mass market product until the price comes down to this price point. But given Amazon’s US launch price for its Kindle Fire at $199 versus the iPad2 at $499, YouGov expects the same pricing differential in the UK and other global markets.

“Apple is far and away the current UK market leader in terms of brand awareness, preference and price,” says Russell Feldman, associate director for technology and telecoms consulting at YouGov.

“But the introduction of the Kindle Fire, with its compelling features and even more attractive price, will make it very hard indeed for other players to compete. The Kindle Fire benefits not only on price and specifications, but also in the value and trust consumers have in the Amazon brand. What’s more it has the potential to be a major game-changer given the depth of Amazon’s downloadable content as well as its burgeoning application store – something that has underpinned consumers’ loyalty to Apple over other tablets running an Android OS.”

Research from YouGov’s TabletTrack confirms Apple’s superiority in the tablet market as it stands. Already trailing the iPad2 on brand preference among UK consumers, tablets from manufacturers like Acer, HTC, Motorola, LG and Samsung now face almost impossible competition as the Kindle Fire joins the fray. These competitors are already trailing below the iPad2, which scores significantly higher in consumer awareness, consideration and expectation levels than its rivals, YouGov said.

The research reveals low consumer consideration and expectation levels for a non-Apple brand. 72% of “hot prospects” (respondents who are keen to get a tablet) will consider purchasing an iPad2 with a further 61% expecting to get one. However, the next most popular tablets are the out of date iPad1 at 14%, followed by the original Samsung Galaxy Tab at 7%. Other competitors fared even worse, with just 3% of “hot prospects” expecting to get a HTC, 3% a BlackBerry and just 1% favouring an Acer.

“This is the mountain Android-based tablets need to climb, but by launching a rival ecosystem at an extremely competitive price, Amazon is likely to make a rapid approach to the summit, at the expense not necessarily of Apple, but of its rival Android stable mates,” Feldman added.