I honestly don't think that Amazon or Barnes and Noble consider their devices to be iPad competitors, though. They're selling them as eReaders that just happen to be able to play Angry Birds, not as full-featured tablets.
There's a lot of things they've been doing over the past year or two that makes a lot of sense in the context of planning to create a blessed Amazon media player. It does not exist yet, but it's hard to imagine it won't.
Have you seen this? http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sa_menu_aiv_piv_t10?ie=UTF8&... Or anything else on the left sidebar under "Instant Video". Or their music plays. Or http://www.amazon.com/mobile-apps/b?ie=UTF8&node=2350149... .
There's a lot of things they've been doing over the past year or two that makes a lot of sense in the context of planning to create a blessed Amazon media player. It does not exist yet, but it's hard to imagine it won't.