(Images source: Amazon.com)

BY TRACY PFEIFFER

ANCHOR GARY COTTON

There’s a product release rumor making the rounds.

And this time-- it isn’t Apple.

News outlets like The New York Times are reporting they’ve received an invitation to an Amazon presser this upcoming Wednesday.

The Times’ Bits blog says-- all signs seem to point to a new Kindle tablet computer.

“Although the invite was typically cryptic, simply saying: ‘Please join us for an Amazon press conference,’ it’s possible the company is finally ready to announce its long-awaited color tablet. At the very least, it will be about a Kindle. ...Amazon press conferences in recent years have been the venue to announce a new Kindle.”

Earlier in September, TechCrunch’s MG Siegler got a sneak peek at the device, and wrote...

“...Amazon has forked Android to build their own version for the Kindle. Simply put: it looks nothing like the Android you’re used to seeing. The interface is all Amazon and Kindle. It’s black, dark blue, and a bunch of orange.”

And even though it isn’t Apple’s presser coming up, the Bay Area’s KNTV says the iPad-makers will be watching closely.

“For months there has been speculation that Amazon will transform its Kindle from a mere book-reading machine into a full fledge tablet computer. With recent disappointments like the HP's TouchPad and RIM's PlayBook, the industry is looking for a viable challenge to the iPad's dominance of the tablet market.”

The rumored tab is supposedly going to come in at $250 a pop, but it reportedly won’t have a camera or a lot of on-board storage, among other things.

But a correspondent for Bloomberg suspects a ready-to-go infrastructure means Amazon’s device really will be Apple’s biggest competitor.

DANIELLE KUCERA, BLOOMBERG NEWS: “They have a lot of customers to leverage that other retailers don’t. So they have content that the customers trust them for -- they have the Kindle, they have eBooks, they have music that they sell on their site. They have the video content for Prime customers and they have the credit card numbers of millions of people who are loyal to Amazon and trust them and people who visit the site every day that will be able to see that tablet on the front page.”

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