Amazon Fire, Everything You Needed to Know but Were Too Afraid to Ask
Amazon have claimed a 7″ tablet which some are saying will destroy the iPad and lay other Android devices to waste. But precisely what is it the Amazon tablet and why is the industry so excited by it.
Named the `Amazon Fire` the tablet was launched on Wednesday the 28th of September but won’t be shipped till November fifteen (although it may be released later due to suspected bugs).
Amazon has displayed a new selection of Kindle devices in N. Y this week including its much forecasted tablet, Kindle Fire. The 7-inch beauty is certain to heat up the tablet war with enticing features such as customized Android, dual core processor and 7-inch IPS display. While Kindle Fire has a load to give, it disappoints a bit, missing 1 or 2 important features such as a camera, mic and 3G connectivity.
The Android fanboys won’t be too thrilled to see a highly changed version of Android 2.2 and lack of Android Market. But Amazon has bundled its own Amazon App Store for downloading Android apps which should offer lots of selections for quality applications.
Amazon has additionally packed huge media content such as eBooks, flicks, music and TV shows thru its storefronts and free cloud storage. Instead of crowding too many features, Amazon has also opted for an easy control interface in Fire. The new browser, Amazon Silk was also introduced in the event. Silk has its own great features in that it offers rapid access to cloud content by offloading processes to the Amazon EC2 servers.
Here is what anyone thinking about getting the Android tablet will be getting hold of will have access to :
Operating System : A highly modified version of Android 2.2 with the marketplace stripped out and replaced with an Amazon market place.
Screen : 7 in. touchscreen, with 169 ppi resolution
Processor : 1GHz dual core ARM processor
RAM : 512MB
Internal Memory : 8GB
Connectibility : WiFi
Battery charge lifespan : 8 hours
Availability : November 15 (US only) ;
Like the Amazon Kindle release earlier in the year the excitement does not so much come from the device’s capacities, but more from the cost.
The device will cost 199 Bucks for US customers with plans to release it to England in the very near future.
However there’s no word on a global release yet and use in other states will generally need some type of jailbreak as the operation of the device is tied very heavily to the Amazon site.
So what does it mean for the market generally? Although it has still to be seen whether or nor this tablet will have a noticeable effect on other Android sales, or sales of the iPad, it can definitely be said that it should push the prices of pills down and will help convince lower-end tablet makers that they need to improve their standards.
Nonetheless makers and vendors of mid-range android tablets should still find strong markets overseas as well as with clients hunting for MIDs that better meet there wants.
