Amazon to Unveil "Kindle Fire" Tablet

Kindle not hot enough for you? How about a Kindle Fire?

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos will take the stage in New York on Wednesday to unveil the company’s exuberantly named new tablet, tipped as a cheaper competitor to Apple’s popular-but-pricey iPad. It won’t supplant the original Kindle e-reader, but will be a fuller-featured alternative, supporting streaming video, music, Web browsing via Wi-Fi and a range of apps built on the Android platform, TechCrunch reports. The price remains to be announced, with most speculating it will go for $250 or $300—placing it between the $139 Kindle and the $499 iPad 2.

Rather than the Kindle’s grayscale E Ink screen, the Kindle Fire will employ a 7-inch backlit touchscreen display similar to that of the Blackberry PlayBook tablet. The tech blog Gdgt explains why: Amazon outsourced the Kindle Fire’s hardware design to the same third-party company that built the Playbook. The “shortcut” will allow Amazon to release its new device ahead of the holiday season. But it has also lowered expectations, with Apple Insider pooh-poohing it as a “slower version of RIM’s PlayBook,” which itself has not sold well.

While iPad comparisons are inevitable, insiders say the Kindle Fire won't attempt to match the Apple product's polish and depth of features. It will compete more directly with Barnes & Noble’s forthcoming Nook Color 2, expected to launch next month at a similar price. TechCrunch notes, “In fact, that may play into Amazon’s timing here. They’re announcing the device well over a month before it will be available.” Amazon reportedly expects to start shipping the Kindle Fire in the second week of November.

One of its top selling points will be the easy access to Amazon’s huge library of digital content. AllThingsD speculates that Amazon’s recent announcement of a deal with Fox for streaming movies and TV shows may be linked to the tablet launch.

TechCrunch offered more details about the device in a scoop earlier this month.

Bezos also touted Amazon’s new browser, the Silk, as a significant advance in the tablet Web experience. Rather than downloading and storing all of a web page’s content on the Kindle Fire itself, Silk puts it on Amazon’s cloud servers, allowing it to load much more quickly.

The Kindle Fire will ship starting on Nov. 15, Bezos said. “We’re making many millions of these, but I still suggest you preorder today if you want to be sure that you have one.”

POST Tuesday at 1:11 p.m.: Kindle not hot enough for you? How about a Kindle Fire?

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos will take the stage in New York on Wednesday to unveil the company’s exuberantly named new tablet, tipped as a cheaper competitor to Apple’s popular-but-pricey iPad. It won’t supplant the original Kindle e-reader, but will be a fuller-featured alternative, supporting streaming video, music, Web browsing via Wi-Fi and a range of apps built on the Android platform, TechCrunch reports. The price remains to be announced, with most speculating it will go for $250 or $300—placing it between the $139 Kindle and the $499 iPad 2.

Rather than the Kindle’s grayscale E Ink screen, the Kindle Fire will employ a 7-inch backlit touchscreen display similar to that of the Blackberry PlayBook tablet. The tech blog Gdgt explains why: Amazon outsourced the Kindle Fire’s hardware design to the same third-party company that built the Playbook. The “shortcut” will allow Amazon to release its new device ahead of the holiday season. But it has also lowered expectations, with Apple Insider pooh-poohing it as a “slower version of RIM’s PlayBook,” which itself has not sold well.

While iPad comparisons are inevitable, insiders say the Kindle Fire won't attempt to match the Apple product's polish and depth of features. It will compete more directly with Barnes & Noble’s forthcoming Nook Color 2, expected to launch next month at a similar price. TechCrunch notes, “In fact, that may play into Amazon’s timing here. They’re announcing the device well over a month before it will be available.” Amazon reportedly expects to start shipping the Kindle Fire in the second week of November.

One of its top selling points will be the easy access to Amazon’s huge library of digital content. AllThingsD speculates that Amazon’s recent announcement of a deal with Fox for streaming movies and TV shows may be linked to the tablet launch.

TechCrunch offered more details about the device in a scoop earlier this month.