• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, July 23, 2012

Already a force in the increasingly key field of mobile computing, Amazon.com reportedly plans to expand its mobile platform and broaden its device offerings beyond e-readers and the Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon is to introduce up to five or six tablet new mobile devices, Demos Parneros, president of U.S. Retail for Staples (which sells the Fire), tells Reuters.

“According to the exec, the [devices] will come in a range of sizes and would include a new ten-inch device -- going directly against another popular 10-inch slab,” writes Engadget. “No word on whether these five or six devices would include a smartphone.”

“One of those [devices] may also refer to a phone that is also rumored to be coming from the retail giant,” 9to5Google notes.

“It's not clear yet whether these will all be distinctly different models,” The Verge writes. “It wouldn't surprise us if several of these [tablets] were merely different storage capacities for the new Kindle Fire models.”

“It's almost definitely based on the number of [tablets] that Amazon will send to Staples,” Gizmodo writes regarding the projected number of new devices. “That means a separate ‘model’ for each storage option—or data option. So, if the next Fire gets, say, just a 7-inch model, with 8, 16, and 32GB storage options, each of those having either Wi-Fi-only or 3G options, that's six [tablets] right there.”

Regardless, the Reuters story doesn’t lose sight of the fact that: “Amazon is making its own tablets to help the company sell more digital goods, such as MP3s, movies, TV shows, apps and games. Physical versions of these products, such as CDs and DVDs, were a big business for Amazon, but they are now in decline.”