Kindle Tablet

The Kindle Fire is ready for pre-order today. The official release date is 15th November but folks will need to get their orders in pretty sharpish if they want to guarantee delivery before the holidays.

With a price-tag of only $199 and a better than expected specification this little tablet will be a big hit.

Previous news:

Amazon are holding a press conference in New York on 28th Sept where they will unveil their latest product; the Kindle Fire Tablet.

We are pretty sure we have a good idea of the general specifications thanks to TechCrunch who say they saw the device earlier this month.

• 7" touch-screen display (but only 2 finger control, not the 10 finger control used on the iPad).
• Based on Android but totally bespoke to Amazon (so you'll only be able to use Apps developed specifically for this Android tablet).
• Based on the Blackberry Playbook (remember those).
• Cheap - current pricing rumors are starting at around $179 and going up to around $259.
• Wi-fi only for now.
• All ready to go with Amazon's own Kindle book reader, instant Movie streaming, music downloads, apps and games.

The actual release date of the new Kindle Fire is likely to be November 2011. But expect to be able to pre-order your tablet Kindle in the next week or so.

The world is doing pretty well thank you very much without a Kindle Tablet from Amazon. We already have great e-ink ebook readers from amazon and fancy touch-screen tablet computers from every electronics company trying to hijack Apple's success with the iPad and iPad 2. So why on earth would we want an Android tablet from Amazon?

Well, the thing is the iPad is neat but it is also pretty expensive. Consumers would like an alternative tablet that is smaller and cheaper. But the tablet PCs due to be released throughout 2011 don't seem to have inspired that much interest so far.

Perhaps we don't want an alternative from a company we associate only with mobile phones. Perhaps we want a tablet from a name we already know, trust and rely on. A name associated with Apps and down-loadable content and more. Perhaps we want an Amazon Tablet Device?

Well its now September and even though Amazon are still keeping quiet, the Kindle tablet looks far more likely than ever. Over at Techcrunch they claim to have actually used a prototype of the device (and are citing an early November release date).

It looks like Amazon are moving into the realms of Barnes & Noble's color Nook, with a 7 inch tablet priced at a realistic $250. For that you also get free Amazon Prime membership which allows for some free instant video downloads.

So why would people want this color Kindle rather than a Nook? Well its all in the Amazon brand really. Even though this is based on old Android systems and won't allow users to go just anywhere for new content, there is so much to get at the Amazon site itself, it really won't matter to the average user.

With the Kindle reading app and access to the massive Kindle book-store readers will be well catered for. The device comes with the Amazon Cloud Player for music downloads, and Amazon's Instant Video service for watching movies. Expect the Amazon Android Apps store to grow massively in a bid to sell consumers even more Amazon specific content.

Amazon are already annoying Apple.  Their Appstore (please note the lack of a space) launched in March 2011 to provide Android Apps to the masses.  Customers are happy with an easier platform on which to find new Apps, and developers are happy with a little more choice about where to put their work.  Apple though are less than impressed.  Since they are already trying to copyright "App Store" the company are less than impressed with Amazon hijacking the title.  

Of course so far Amazon are using the common sense argument that an App Store is a little like a shoe store and using the term should be free for all.  We will have to wait to see whether logic and common sense win out on this one!  The legal action has begun...

We have all seen that just about every electronics company this year has already announced an inferior, cheaper, not so pretty iPad style tablet to be released "soon".  So why on earth would Amazon bother?  After all they are hardly known as an electronics manufacturer are they?

Well the reasons are numerous.  But lets start with the "big one"...

No-one else is going to take a significant share of the tablet market!

Apple have sexy stores, sexy sites and a loyal customer base that simply view Apple as the company to be dealing with when it comes to personal electronics.  

All those other tablets unveiled this year will be sitting at the back of mobile network provider stores, sold by folks that don't know everything there is to know about them, and certainly don't know why you really need a tablet in the first place.

This is another "biggee".  The tablet is a bit of a mythical (dare I say pointless) device.  Those that have them (and those that just lurve Apple) will continue to buy iPads.  But what about the rest of us, that have yet to understand why on earth we need a tablet computer when we already have a media player and netbook (not to mention the PC, mobile phone, etc, etc...

Apple have sold us the iPad.  But so far no-one has sold us the tablet PC.  Amazon might just be the right company to explain to us why we really should be buying tablet computers.  After all we already deal with them, trust them, and let them have all our credit card details.  If they tell us a tablet Kindle is what we need, maybe they are right.

Forrester, the leading trend analysts recently blogged that simply no-one else was in a position to take Apple on at the tablet game.  They cited the fact that other new tablets were still expensive and tied in with network contracts as one reason.  Amazon have shown just how much money can be made selling at a loss with their Kindle reader.  Perhaps they would be brave enough to do the same with the Kindle tablet.  After all content is where the money is, and Amazon are proving pretty good at giving us all the content we ever wanted and a whole lot more besides.

With their new Appstore providing even more content to exist alongside ebooks and video streaming couldn't Amazon make a pretty packet out of selling us cheap tablet devices?

The fact that most of us don't know why we need a tablet adds further weight to the argument.  When Jeff Bezos launched the original Kindle on the world, it really wasn't that great and more importantly there really wasn't much of an ebook market.  But with Amazon "suggesting" life would be better with a small electronic book reader the success of Kindle was pretty much guaranteed.  Four years later the Kindle 3 (which is awesome in its improvement on the original) has around half the ebook reading device market and is turning the world of publishing completely on its head.  

The tablet could never have jeopardised "real" books, but it looks like the cheap, cheerful, easy to use and most importantly "purposeful" Kindle, might just.  Of course now we are reading those ebooks on tablets, phones and computers as well as readers, but it is all down to the humble ebook reader that started it all.

If no one else can compete against Apple in terms of content delivery and the shopping experience sure Amazon must step up to the table and bring us a real alternative; An Android Kindle Tablet.  And now that they are recruiting more Android development staff might this be something to expect rather soon?

They key is Amazon taught us what their little gizmo was for; reading.  Suddenly the Kindle made sense and we bought into it in our millions.  If Amazon teach us why we simply must have a tablet Kindle history is more than likely to repeat itself and make Jeff Bezos even richer still!

There have been plenty of Amazon tablet rumors already this year. But, to be honest they have primarily been circumstantial bits and bobs based on people's assumption that Amazon simply will release a tablet PC device at some point, rather than being based on any actual hard evidence.

Recently a Taiwanese technology site released a news story saying that Amazon have actually placed an order with OEM partner Quanta (also based in Taiwan), to build an Amazon own brand tablet. The leak is thought to have come from insiders ready to supply components for the new device. However, what company they are from remains a mystery and no real details of a potential tablet have been released. Except to say that E-ink holdings (who create the current e-ink screens used in Kindle readers) will be involved, and that shipments should begin in the 2nd half of 2011. As its May already we might not have very long to wait till a real alternative to the iPad is revealed.

Update Sept 2011: Well now we know the new Amazon tablet will be named the Kindle Fire, and that journalists will get a first official look on 28th Sept at a New York press conference. Expect the device to go on pre-order in the coming weeks, with deliveries to customers beginning some time around the middle of November.