Amazon is going to leapfrog the competition and become the number two product in the tablet market, "as long as the Kindle Fire can provide a quality user experience," according to ChangeWave Research (http://www.changewaveresearch.com/), a division of The 451 Group, an analyst company The 451 Group. The company has released the results of their latest survey of the consumer tablet marketplace.

Apple continues to show enormous strength in the tablet market, where it’s enjoying the best quarter in its history, according to the survey. But while two-out-of-every-three future buyers plan on purchasing an iPad (65%), for the first time since the launch of the original model, there is a double-digit contender for the number two spot. Better than one-in-five planned purchasers (22%) say they’ll buy a Kindle Fire.

The Amazon Kindle Fire represents a shot across the bow at Apple, who until now has almost completely dominated the tablet space, according to Dr. Paul Carton, vice president of Research at ChangeWave,. But the Amazon surge may also contain a silver lining for Apple, by damaging the tablet market hopes of the remaining competitors in the field, he says.

The most immediate impact of the Amazon device is on the rest of the competition, where the survey shows it wreaking a devastating blow to a range of second tier tablet manufacturers, including Motorola, RIM, Dell, HTC, H-P and Toshiba. Importantly, with the exception of the Samsung Galaxy Tab (4%) no other manufacturer is garnering more than 1% of future tablet demand among consumers.

The November ChangeWave survey of 3,043 North American consumers shows an extraordinary level of initial demand for the Amazon tablet, with 2% of respondents having already pre-ordered the device and 5% saying they’re very likely to buy it. Another 12% say they’re somewhat likely.

But it’s an iPad holiday season as well, and as seen in previous ChangeWave surveys, a key reason for the Apple tablet’s market dominance can be found in its customer satisfaction rating. A total of 74% of all iPad owners say they’re very satisfied with their device. This compares to a 49% very satisfied rating for all other tablet manufacturers combined.