Amazon’s tablet will make or break Android

I note with mild amusement that B&N's Nook Color hasn't exactly destroyed Android. (Even though half an hour on the web is enough to find the tools with which to root it and turn it into an Android 2.2 device -- Honeycomb is still a bit alpha-ish. And I can testify from first-hand experience that the Nook Color makes a really nice Kindle.)

What the Amazon tablet may do is to trigger a shake-out among the Android tablet vendors, because if it's as well-integrated as the Kindle e-ink experience it's going to show up a lot of crappy also-rans for what they are. And it'll likely punch well above its price point because Amazon will be selling the handle at (or below) cost in order to guarantee ongoing sales of razor blades.

Seems more like Amazon's tablet will hardly be recognizable as Android - with a focus on it's own AppStore and other services Amazon offers, the underlying OS gradually becomes irrelevant.

With what Apple has done to their supply chain, I'm still not convinced that Amazon can make a tablet with solid hardware specs at a price much cheaper than the iPad. I know that's the rumor, and some people feel they would do it even at a loss, but that's a big if. And there is the possibility that Apple releases it's own cheaper, but smaller, iPad.