Amazon on Wednesday unveiled the Kindle Fire tablet, a 7-inch device that will cost $199, as well as a $99 touch version of its e-book reader, dubbed the Kindle Touch, and a $79 non-touch Kindle.
The Fire will ship on November 15, but is available for pre-order now.
The Android-based Fire includes an IPS display, an ultra-wide viewing angle, and fast dual-core processor, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said during a New York press event.
"It's light, easy to hold in one hand, 14.6 ounces, and it has all the content," Bezos said.
Bezos said the Fire will merge all of Amazon's services, including Amazon Web Services, Prime, Kindle, Instant Video, MP3, and the AppStore. He talked up access to content, including 100,000 movies and TV shows, 17 million songs, apps, and full-color magazines. The company's Whispersync service has been extended to movies and TV shows. Buyers will get a free month of Amazon Prime, which normally costs $79 per year.
The Fire will ship on November 15, but is available for pre-order now.
The Android-based Fire includes an IPS display, an ultra-wide viewing angle, and fast dual-core processor, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said during a New York press event.
"It's light, easy to hold in one hand, 14.6 ounces, and it has all the content," Bezos said.
Bezos said the Fire will merge all of Amazon's services, including Amazon Web Services, Prime, Kindle, Instant Video, MP3, and the AppStore. He talked up access to content, including 100,000 movies and TV shows, 17 million songs, apps, and full-color magazines. The company's Whispersync service has been extended to movies and TV shows. Buyers will get a free month of Amazon Prime, which normally costs $79 per year.
Like Kindle, content will be backed up in the cloud "so you can delete things whenever you want," Bezos said.
Amazon EC2, meanwhile, will be used for Amazon Silk, a "split browser" that will partially live in the cloud and partially live on the Fire, Bezos said, producing a faster browsing experience. Opera later said that it was was "very flattered" that Amazon launched its Silk browser, but said it had already refined the concept of cloud browsing years ago.
On the e-reader front, Bezos said the Kindle Touch e-book includes an advanced E Ink display, infrared touch interface, extra long battery life, access to millions of e-books, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Audible integration, and more, including a feature known as X-Ray, which shows the "bones" of a book, or details Amazon thinks a reader would find interesting.
The Wi-Fi Kindle Touch is $99, but Amazon will also sell a 3G version of the Touch for $149. Both Kindles are available for pre-order today and will ship November 21. "We're going to sell many millions of these," Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said during a New York press event.
For those who don't need touch, the $79 Kindle is under 6 ounces and 18 percent smaller than previous Kindles, Bezos said. It's available for order today.
"Let the fervor begin," Bezos said.
Earlier this week Amazon announced a licensing agreement with Twentieth Century Fox that will add an extra 2,000 movie and TV shows to Amazon Prime, bringing the total number of instant videos to more than 11,000 when the movie and TV shows becomes available later this fall. In July, Amazon also inked a deal with CBS that added 2,000 full-season episodes from 18 of the network's shows.
Amazon tablet rumors have been floating around for months with no real acknowledgement from Amazon about its existence, save for a vague "stay tuned," from Bezos back in May.
Earlier this month, however, TechCrunch said it got a glimpse at the tablet, several week after a Wall Street Journal report said the Amazon tablet would arrive "before October."
Last month, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said that at the right price, an Amazon tablet could be a great iPad competitor. She acknowledged that Amazon taking on Apple in the tablet market "is a bit like David taking on Goliath" given the market cap, profits, and cash position of the two companies. But Amazon has a strong brand-name recognition, cloud services, and the Kindle line, among other things, making it "the only credible iPad competitor in the market," she said.
A Tuesday report from Strategy Analytics, meanwhile, found that the iPad captured 80 percent of the U.S. tablet market in the second quarter. Amazon will have a tough, but not impossible, time breaking taking a bite out of that lead, the firm said.
Amazon EC2, meanwhile, will be used for Amazon Silk, a "split browser" that will partially live in the cloud and partially live on the Fire, Bezos said, producing a faster browsing experience. Opera later said that it was was "very flattered" that Amazon launched its Silk browser, but said it had already refined the concept of cloud browsing years ago.
On the e-reader front, Bezos said the Kindle Touch e-book includes an advanced E Ink display, infrared touch interface, extra long battery life, access to millions of e-books, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, Audible integration, and more, including a feature known as X-Ray, which shows the "bones" of a book, or details Amazon thinks a reader would find interesting.
The Wi-Fi Kindle Touch is $99, but Amazon will also sell a 3G version of the Touch for $149. Both Kindles are available for pre-order today and will ship November 21. "We're going to sell many millions of these," Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said during a New York press event.
For those who don't need touch, the $79 Kindle is under 6 ounces and 18 percent smaller than previous Kindles, Bezos said. It's available for order today.
"Let the fervor begin," Bezos said.
Earlier this week Amazon announced a licensing agreement with Twentieth Century Fox that will add an extra 2,000 movie and TV shows to Amazon Prime, bringing the total number of instant videos to more than 11,000 when the movie and TV shows becomes available later this fall. In July, Amazon also inked a deal with CBS that added 2,000 full-season episodes from 18 of the network's shows.
Amazon tablet rumors have been floating around for months with no real acknowledgement from Amazon about its existence, save for a vague "stay tuned," from Bezos back in May.
Earlier this month, however, TechCrunch said it got a glimpse at the tablet, several week after a Wall Street Journal report said the Amazon tablet would arrive "before October."
Last month, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said that at the right price, an Amazon tablet could be a great iPad competitor. She acknowledged that Amazon taking on Apple in the tablet market "is a bit like David taking on Goliath" given the market cap, profits, and cash position of the two companies. But Amazon has a strong brand-name recognition, cloud services, and the Kindle line, among other things, making it "the only credible iPad competitor in the market," she said.
A Tuesday report from Strategy Analytics, meanwhile, found that the iPad captured 80 percent of the U.S. tablet market in the second quarter. Amazon will have a tough, but not impossible, time breaking taking a bite out of that lead, the firm said.
"Provided the pricing, screen size and hardware design are right, Amazon can be one of the main challengers to Apple's dominance," said Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics. "Like Apple, Amazon has a strong brand, compelling content, sophisticated billing systems and widespread distribution. In effect, Amazon's new tablet product represents a good opportunity to place an Amazon shopping cart in the hands of American consumers, offering optimized access to purchasing digital content or physical goods from the Amazon online store."
Price could be a big factor, indeed. The HP TouchPad gathered dust on store shelves until HP lowered the price to $99 for the 16GB and $149 for the 32GB version, prompting a rush of purchases. But that was only because HP was ceasing production and had to get rid of excess inventory.
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