With an eye on the tablet market, Amazon has inked an marketing, e-commerce and content relationship agreement with Hearst in which Amazon will become Hearst's single-largest third-party seller of print subscriptions for its magazines via digital channels.

An Uphill Climb for Amazon

Amazon’s forthcoming tablet has repeatedly been identified as the most likely tablet to actually challenge the iPad. Even with Hearst’s content as part of the package, however, Amazon has a steep hill to climb.

The majority of businesses and consumers planning on buying a tablet device intend to buy an Apple iPad, according to ChangeWave Research. Among corporate buyers, demand for iPad has remained steady since May 2011, while demand for Motorola and RIM/Blackberry has substantially decreased.

Even though the Amazon tablet hasn’t been released, the survey asked about it as well.

But Some Reason to Hope

A total of 2% said they’re very likely and 12% somewhat likely to buy a Kindle tablet when it becomes available. Based on this response, ChangeWave says it’s clear that the consumer demand is there if Amazon can produce a competitive tablet device. Moreover, Amazon’s huge base of Kindle e-reader users gives them a considerable leg up for entering the tablet market.