Kindle Fire tablet: Amazon's iPad rival set to undercut a slice out of Apple
Amazon today changed the internet giant's course forever by releasing a tablet that costs just $199, which will put it in direct competition with Apple.
The new Android touchscreen will be just one of a clutch of new Kindles, including models as cheap as $80/89. Users outside America may have to wait, however.
The Kindle Fire will offer gaming, films, music, web browsing and books - all for just $199
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveils the Kindle Fire today
The new colour Android device has a 7in colour screen, and will weigh 14.6oz. It can store 100,000 films or 17m songs. It also plays games, runs apps and - of course - stores books and magazines.
Unlike iPad, it won't need to dock with a computer - but will 'sync' wirelessly via Amazon's Whispersync service, which sends information via wi-fi.
It is, Jeff Bezos said, 'Unbelievable value.' It is set to launch in America on November 15. The device will be wi-fi only, rather than equipped with a 3G connection.
The e-reader and tablet has a 7-inch (17.78 cm) multicolor touchsc! reen - a nd doesn't need to dock with a PC, unlike iPad
Amazon has also unveiled its own internet browser, Amazon Silk - an unexpected move, which seems even more aggressive towards Apple. It uses Amazon's 'cloud computing' service EC2 to speed up browsing by 'offloading' some tasks to Amazon's servers.
The company claims Silk can speed up browsing by up to 20 times.
The details of the tablet had been widely leaked, but it still surprised many. One Twitter user said simply, 'Amazon just nuked the tablet market.'
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up the new Kindle Touch - one of several new aggressively priced models of the e-Reader unveiled today
Amazon's Kindle is the site's best-selling product - but Kindle Fire, the tablet unveiled today, takes the gadget beyond being a cheap techno-bookshop to a multi-function tablet with access to the huge amount of film, music and television Amazon already hosts on its site.
The device is due out on November 15. A UK - or worldwide - release date is yet to be confirmed. Since many of the services are tied to Amazon's 'cloud' video service, a UK release before Christmas may not be on the cards.
The Kindle Fire on show - it uses a customised version of Google's Android operating system
The official Amazon line in the UK was that the company was launching a new, 89 model of the black-and-white Kindle - 30 per cent lighter and with 10 per cent faster page turns. There is no mention of a launch date for Fire, the Kindle touchscreen or any other models.
Bezos introduced a line of four new Kindle products, the Ki! ndle Fir e tablet, the Kindle Touch 3G, the Kindle Touch and a new lighter and smaller Kindle
KINDLE FIRE: THE REACTION
'The price is pretty amazing.With all of those services backing it up, there's a lot of reason to think this will make a big splash,' Stuff editor Will Findlater told Mail Online after the launch. 'This is a staggering price.'
'The Kindle will remain the de facto choice for people who just want to read and there are lots of those - while Fire caters for those of us who want gaming, film, and apps.'
Analyst Dominic Sunnebo Kantar from Worldpanel ComTech said, 'Over 25% of consumers who plan to buy a tabletin the next year remain undecided which brand buy. Over 50% of people who want to buy a tablet are waiting for prices to come down. We are likely to see Christmas wish lists rewritten overnight.'
Amazon's Silk browser met approval from sites such as TechCrunch, who wrote, 'It's not a terribly new concept - but it's one that could make a huge difference in a user's web experience.'
Engadget noted the similarity between Fire and BlackBerry's clunker the PlayBook, but wrote, 'Software performance seems quite smart at this point, switching tasks and apps in rapid fire. We were only shown a brief glimpse of the new Silk browser, but we must say the thing appears to deliver on its promises. Ultimately the Fire is looking like a nice little device.'
Gizmodo were even more effusive, saying, 'This is incredible. This is a killer price for a color tablet. Even while it doesn't match the iPad's features, there's going to be some fierce competition this year.'
Reactions on Twitter ranged from 'They're out of their league' to outright disgust - but were outnumberedvastly by users saying they had already pre-ordered.
Twitterer Chris Lehmann noted that the name was possibly ill-advised, saying, 'Does an on! line ret ail behemoth built on book sales want to be marketing a product called Kindle Fire?'
It's a risky move that puts Amazon in direct competition with Apple - but could be essential to the site surviving in an age where downloads of entertainment will become the norm. Bezos himself pointed
FounderJeff Bezos said of the evolution of the device, 'Four years ago we stated with 90,000 books - today it's a million.
You can choose any of these books and have them in 60 seconds wirelessly.'
Butinsiders worry that Amazon may have rushed in. The hardware is very similar to BlackBerry's PlayBook - a huge flop that caused reported redundancies at the company, and is now offered at huge discounts online.
Rumours are also circulating that an upgraded model ofKindle Fire will come out shortly after Christmas - which could dent sales in the short term.
Amazon'sadvantage is that - unlike BlackBerry - it is not trying to make money from the device itself.
Kindle Fire will merely be a portal to Amazon's video, music and eBooks.
Amazonis already the world's largest online retailer - and comes armed with aone-click ordering system that can deliver entertainment from books to films to music with a single button-press.
Other iPad rivals may simply not have been entertaining enough.
Analysts suggest that Amazon's willingness to sell hardware at a loss in order to sell more e-books,films and music will put it in a position to offer the first serious challenge to Apple - whose 'core' business is still selling phones, tablets, and iPods.
Americantech industry analysts Forrester Research wrote on their company blog that Amazon's tablet could be the 'only credible iPad competitor' and could even 'completely disrupt the status quo'.
Even on iPad, consumers often prefer buying books via Amazon's Kindle app to Apple's own less-well-stocked iBooks store.
Apple sells software and services, but the lions share! of Appl es revenue still comes from hardware,' wrote Forrester. 'This makes it vulnerable to a company, such as Amazon, that isnt seeking profit from hardware sales.
Amazon's 'strength' has always been the technologies that underlie its products - such as the one-click buying system it pioneered, or the 'recommendation' system that is now imitated on many other e-commerce sites on the web.
Whether the tech giant can produce an experience as slick as Apple's best-selling iOS remains to be seen.
Producing a web browser is a particularly bold move - one that follows an increasingly hi-tech approach from the company, which now 'hosts' cloud computing services, including supercomputing services.
In the wake of the announcement, shares in book chains plunged - US book chain Barnes and Noble, which makes a rival e-Reader, fell 9 per cent.
Amazon's shares rose 3.5 per cent - a modest rise reflecting the fact that the tablet market is still seen as 'belonging' to Apple.
Analysts still expect Apple to dominate the tablet market for 'several years'.
The device will also offer users games - including, naturally, yet another platform on which to play the iPhone hit Plants vs Zombies
At present, Apple controls at least 75 per cent of tablet sales worldwide, despite High Street chains such as Comet selling Android tablets for as little as 100.
Fire, though, is very different from most Androids: and technological advantages such as Silk, combined with Amazon's vast library of music, films and books, could make it a new, random factor that could change the tablet landscape utterly.
KINDLE FIRE: TECH SPEC
Price: $199
Weight: 414g
Screen size: 7 inches
Resolution: 1024x600
Processor: Texas Instrume! nts OMAP 4 Dual Core
Storage: 8Gb
Camera: No
3G: No
GPS: No
Battery life: 8 hours
Browser: Amazon Silk
Operating system: Android
iPAD 2: TECH SPEC
Price: $499-$829
Weight: 601g-613g
Screen size: 9.7 inches
Resolution: 1024x768
Processor: 1GHz Apple A5 Dual Core
Storage: 16-64Gb
Camera: 1 x 0.7Mpixels(front), 1 x 0.3 megapixels (back)
3G: Yes (optional)
GPS: Optional
Battery life: 10 hours
Browser: Apple Safari
Operating system: iOS
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