Some tablet manufacturers are slashing prices before Amazon?s expected announcement of its own competitively priced tablet offering today.

Research In Motion is lowering prices for its PlayBook tablet at a number of retailers to as low as $249 while Samsung has introduced two new Galaxy Player tablets that will be available for $229 and $269 beginning Oct. 16. These products could find themselves competing with Amazon?s new Android-based tablet, which is expected to be announced today.

?Consumers expect tablets to be a lot cheaper than they are,? said Sarah Rotman Epps, senior analyst at Forrester Research, Cambridge, MA.

A new reality
According Forrester?s research, the average consumer expects to pay only $257 for a tablet.

Initially, the iPad set the standard for what consumers could expect to pay for a tablet. The iPad2 goes for around $499.

However, this is no longer true as lower-priced competitors have come on the scene.

?The Barnes & Noble Nook Color came along and that was only $249,? Ms. Rotman Epps said.

?It has all that some consumers need from a tablet,? she said.

?All of the manufacturers other than Apple have had to come to the reality that they have to lower their prices.?

However, the iPad continues to own a significant portion of tablet sales.

The Apple iPad captured 80 percent share of tablet shipments in North America during the second quarter of 2011, according to new research from Strategy Analytics.

This pulls into question reports that Apple might be forced to lower the price for the iPad in response to market trends or that it is reducing orders to some iPad suppliers by 25 percent for the fourth quarter.

?Apple sold almost every unit it could lay its hands on during the second quarter, so a sudden dramatic slowdown of roughly 25 percent in the third or fourth quarter as claimed does not fully pass the smell test at this stage,? said Neil Mawston, England-based director of global wireless practice at Strategy Analytics.

?We do not expect Apple to significantly lower the retail price of the iPad unless operators subsidize the cellular version or unless Amazon is more successful than expected and starts to massively eat away at Apple?s market share,? he said.

However, several trends are helping to push tablet prices down for some manufacturers, including diversification in screen sizes and second-generation offerings.

The question is where different manufacturers are going to position themselves when it comes to price.

?If you look at the history of the iPod, it has been difficult for manufacturers to position themselves at the high-end directly against Apple,? said Ross Rubin, executive director, industry analysis at The NPD Group, Port Washington, NY.

?There is arguably more room to differentiate on tablets,? he said.

The tablet being introduced by Amazon today will likely have a 7-inch screen, which brings it closer in size to the Kindle ereader.

Amazon continues to line up partners for its video streaming offering, suggesting that its tablet will be optimized for media consumption.  On Monday, Amazon and Fox announced agreement that will see Amazon?s Prime instant video service streaming classic Fox TV shows.

?Clearly the opportunity for Amazon is to integrate with its content sales offering,? NPD?s Mr. Rubin said.

?Almost certainly there will be a way to take advantage of Amazon on demand and together with integration with its Prime service offerings in addition to books and magazines.

?In the short term, the closer competitor is the Nook Color,? he said.

A smaller scale launch
Originally, Amazon was expected to release both a 7-inch and 10-inch tablet.

A smaller scale launch with just one 7-inch tablet entry could impact how well Amazon initially does in this space. 

In August, Forrester forecasted that Amazon could sell as many as 5 million tablets in 2011. However, that number was based on the expectation that there would be two sizes of tablets available.

?Our data shows that there is stronger demand for large-screen tablets than for smaller-screen tablets,? Forrester?s Ms. Rotman Epps said.

?Without a 10-inch tablet, we expect sales to be lower,? she said.

With tablets expected to at the top of consumers? wish lists this holiday season, Amazon could do well if it comes out with a tablet that effectively combines a lower price point with the features that consumers most look for in a tablet. The top five things consumers use tablets for are email, looking up information, playing games, watching videos and listening to music, according to Forrester. 

Amazon?s established distribution channels and high brand awareness could also help make it a significant player here.

?I do think that there is demand for an Amazon tablet,? Ms. Rotman Epps said. ?They are well positioned to take over the non-iPad tablet market and establish real demand in the U.S. for an Android- based tablet."

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York