As expected, Amazon introduced its take on the tablet (computer). There were rumors that it would have a quad core and be a solid competitor to the iPad. Neither of those came true.
The Amazon Fire will operate on an old version of Android, which in itself should not be an issue. Honeycomb has its problems and the market is flooded with Android tablets. It was in Amazon’s best interest to distance themselves from Google’s Android mobile operating system similar to what Barnes & Noble has done with its Nook Color.
The hardware was developed by the same company who made the Blackberry Playbook, which is probably why the two might look a little familiar. The Kindle Fire will sport a 7″ multi-touch IPS display with Gorilla Glass coating, a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512 MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. There is no expansion slot, but all Amazon items are stored in the cloud automatically. Currently, there is only a WiFi version. A 3G version of the Amazon Kindle Fire will not be available at launch and there has been no announcement as to if or when one will come out.
Contrary to the trend, the Kindle Fire will not have a camera (front or rear facing). You will have access to the Amazon Appstore, but not have access to the Google Market. You will be able to access Amazon’s services such as the Kindle book store, Instant Video and MP3 store. The unit will support web browsing, but does not have a built-in email client.
Overall, for $199 you can’t go wrong. The Kindle Fire will be a powerful media consumption device. Will it be an iPad killer? Absolutely not. Not in its current version. The device will prove to be more of a problem for the slew of Honeycomb tablet manufacturers. Like the Nook Color, the Kindle Fire will “dumb down” the experience for the novice user. It will be a souped up e-reader with some very nice extras.
For those of us with kids, well, this device might prove to be a valuable addition to the family. With access to music, movies, books and apps all within a sub $200 unit, yeah, I don’t mind handing that to my soon to be 3 year old instead of holding an Android Honeycomb 101 course each and every time she wants to pull up a game, book or movie on a $400 Asus Eee Pad Transformer. Amazon is onto something here. We will have to wait and see how far they can take it.
You can Preorder the Kindle Fire from Amazon by clicking here
What do you think of the Kindle Fire?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUtmOApIslE