Until now, Apple’s iPad has more or less dominated the tablet computing market, batting away competitors in the same way that Godzilla swats away potential attackers. But if Amazon have got anything to do with it, that might not be the case for much longer.

Amazon’s Kindle is to e-readers what the iPad is to tablets, but now the giant online retailer could be ready to stamp all over Apple’s patch as well. Rumours are abound that an Amazon tablet could be hitting the shops before Christmas, and at a much lower price than its immediate rival.

Industry boffins believe that an Android-powered Amazon tablet could come in at under £200, with Amazon hoping to earn their corn from the sale of eBooks and music from their MP3 store making up the shortfall. If they pull it off, it could lead to Apple being forced to reduced the iPad’s RRP or develop a budget version of it instead.

So far, nothing else has come anywhere close to the iPad’s astounding sales figures with 28 million of them sold. HP recently wrote-off their TouchPad device, flogging off the remaining stock after admitting defeat. Meanwhile RIM’s PlayBook has sold less than a million since its pre-Spring launch and Samsung’s attempts to pitch its Galaxy Tab as a viable iPad alternative are continually thwarted by legal action from Apple.

The iPad’s success seems to suggest there’s a definite thirst for tablet computing – could Amazon come up with the first genuine rival for the Apple ubergadget?