The Wall Street Journal is the latest to write up the long kicked around rumor of Amazon being about to launch a tablet computer. The Journal says it will be here by October. The tablet is widely assumed to be an Android device and carrying the Amazon brand, much like the Kindle.

Ah yes. The Kindle. Well, how is Amazon going to swing this? They have this apparently (no sales figures are ever revealed) successful product that exists to read books. Now they’ll offer this tablet computer that can also read books PLUS, presumably, be a sort of
iPad too. Okay. Whatever. Good luck, Amazon.

As was the case with the Kindle, the device is will be a portal to the digital content Amazon is pushing more and more. If you have a device tailored to Amazon’s interface and formatting, it will be easier to pull music, movies, books, whatever from Amazon. That’s part of what makes Apple products so successful is that the device speaks to iTunes so darn well.