Amazon.com has launched its long awaited Kindle Fire tablet at event held in Manhattan, New York. The device features a 7-inch multi-touch LCD display (based on Gorilla Glass technology for extra protection), 8GB of storage, built in Wi-Fi connectivity, a 1GHz dual-core Texas Instruments' OMAP (Open Multimedia Application Processor), and weighs in at around 413 grams. The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet will also feature the Amazon Silk - a "cloud-accelerated" web browser that will reportedly make browsing faster.
The tablet, which runs on Google's Android OS, will cost $199 (~Rs. 9734), almost $300 cheaper than Apple's cheapest iPad, which starts at $499 (~Rs. 24,408) - However the Amazon Fire tablet doesn't feature 3G connectivity, and an in-built microphone and camera are also absent. The Kindle Fire tablet will ship from November15 onwards and is currently available for pre-order from their site (US only).
While it has been claimed that the Kindle Fire will pose a competitive threat to Apple's iPad, it might be more likely that it will compete with other Android devices such as those from Samsung, Motorola, RIM, and other tablet manufacturers. The Kindle Fire will have a distinct advantage over the other Android tablets , given that Amazon - the world's largest online retailer - unlike most other Android tablet makers, is a content and e-commerce enabler. In other words, with Amazon's ability to provide integrated access to content on it's site such as it's collection of 100,000 movies and TV shows, 17 million songs, apps, millions of books and full-color magazines, other manufacturers will find it very hard to compete with Amazon on services, entertainment and cloud offerings.
In addition to the Kindle Fire, Amazon also launched three new Kindle models - the Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G and Kindle e-reader that retail for $99 (~Rs. 4843), $149 (~Rs. 7289) and $79 (~Rs. 3864) respectively.
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