Amazon Reveals “Kindle Fire”, Their Affordable and Impressive Android Tablet

Written by on September 29th, 2011

Amazon has officially announced its rumored Kindle Fire, an all-purpose tablet and e-reader with an incredibly-appealing price point. What does this tablet have to offer? What’s it’s cost? Let’s explore the Kindle Fire!

Many argue that e-books are the future — this writer prefers a physical copy to read through and store on his book shelf, but also will not deny the convenience of an e-reader and e-books. Traveling, quick access, and convenience all come to mind. Amazon has lead the e-reader movement since first releasing the Amazon Kindle, and yesterday upped the ante with their latest Kindle family addition: an affordable and competitive Kindle tablet running Google’s Android operating system. However, this new device isn’t only an e-reader! No, it will run like any other tablet, allowing owners to read books, browse the web, play games, use apps, check email, and more. For all intents and purposes, this is a high-quality, low-priced Android tablet… and we think it’s going to be a major contender in the war for tablet supremecy.

The tablet itself is a full-color 7″ multi-touch tablet weighing only 14.6 ounces. The device has little harddrive space — only 8GB — because Amazon has developed the Kindle Fire to run on the cloud, free of charge:

Forget about memory – Kindle Fire gives you free storage for all your Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud. Your books, movies, music and apps are available instantly to stream or download for free, at a touch of your finger.

The device also utilizes a new technology developed by Amazon to allow faster browsing time:

Amazon Silk is a revolutionary, cloud-accelerated browser that uses a “split browser” architecture to leverage the computing speed and power of the Amazon Web Services cloud.

The Kindle Fire is available for pre-order now for only $199 (with free shipping) and officially ships on November 15th, 2011.

Will you be getting a Kindle Fire? Do you think this is a competitor for Apple’s iPad?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BSXQTSPSJ6B26QADPOTVWGGE5A imstillhungry95

    I don’t think this version of the Kindle Fire will be a competitor with the iPad, but I think in a couple years, when Amazon starts adding some fetures it will become a serious force to be reckond with. Apple should be very very concerned!

    • http://www.twitter.com/mikemacauley Mike Macauley

      I think it’s going to be a competitor for the iPad right off the bat. Why? Its price. The price is now enough for people who don’t usually buy the first generation of electronics (myself included) to buy in. $200 for a tablet? Ok!

      In fact, I already bought mine. Got it yesterday as soon as pre-orders were made available. This is the first time I’ve ever bought the first generation of a product and its price point allowed me to do so. The regular Kindles have shown us that Amazon knows what it is doing when it comes to developing its own line of electronics. I’m sure this will be just as good, and Apple should be worried about that.