Amazon's got a tablet! The online book retailer and Kindle-maker has lifted the lid on the long-rumoured Amazon Kindle Fire, a 7-inch slate that runs a heavily modified version of Android, and is set to be incredibly cheap.
The Kindle Fire will cost just $199 in the US, which equates to about £130 in Her Majesty's sterling of the realm. We don't yet know whether Amazon will be bringing the Fire to the UK, but that would be a seriously affordable tablet compared to the iPad 2, which costs £399 for the cheapest model. That's Andy Pad territory, for heaven's sake.
As you'd perhaps expect from something with a price tag that low, the Kindle Fire is rather measly in the hardware stakes. There's no camera, no microphone, and you won't get access to Amazon's brilliant Whispernet 3G network, because the Fire doesn't support 3G connectivity, only Wi-Fi. It does sync wirelessly though.
It looks a lot like the BlackBerry PlayBook, weighs roughly 415g and has a dual-core processor. Reasonable specs then, but nothing mind-blowing.
So long as it doesn't feel completely horrible to use, you won't hear us complaining. The Kindle Fire is built to deliver software, not hardware. That means ebooks, music and movies from Amazon's suite of entertainment services.
Multimedia
Amazon offers tens of thousands of movies and TV shows available to download via its Instant Video player, access to 17 million streaming MP3s via its Cloud Player service and -- of course -- ebooks via the Kindle app. Colour magazines are available too, via an app called Newsstand, and all of these services will be hurtling toward the Kindle Fire like an out-of-control multimedia steam train.
WhisperSync works with movies, which means you can stop watching a video on the tablet, then switch to your big-screen telly and commence playback at the point you left off. You can delete anything from your Kindle Fire and get it back whenever you fancy, too.
Apps are delivered courtesy of Amazon's own Android Appstore, which has an edge over Android's default Market app store because apps are tested for quality, and you can demo them before buying using an online simulator.
Modified Android
The Amazon Kindle Fire is running on Android, but not any version of Android you're likely to recognise -- it appears to have been heavily modified to suit Amazon's needs.
On the one hand that means you won't get to do all the fun tinkering that Android allows, but on the other it could make the tablet itself much simpler and more intuitive than many Android tablets.
There's just one fly in the ointment, however. In fact, it's more of a massive mutant bee, and that bee is the fact that lots of Amazon's multimedia gubbins -- including the video and music services -- aren't available in the UK.
That means that even if the Fire comes out over here, it's usefulness could be hampered because all the coolest Amazon services might not work. We'll let you know as soon as we hear more.
We've also heard whispers of a second Amazon Kindle tablet coming in early 2012, so you might want to hold off putting this new tablet on your Christmas list until we know a little more about that.
The Kindle Fire is out on 15 November in the US, we'll let you know as soon as we hear about UK availability.
Are you keen on this budget Kindle tablet? Start a fire down in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
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Comments 11
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anonymous 28 September, 2011 16:40
Amazing product, but announce as UK-only. Bad move Amazon.
anonymous 28 September, 2011 16:45
just jizzed
anonymous 28 September, 2011 17:11
would they not use Love Film for film streaming?
anonymous 28 September, 2011 17:41
Love Film streaming currently is horrible - does it work on android tablets? Doesn't work on iOS. I tried Netflix in the US, and it was amazing...
Paul Davey 28 September, 2011 18:42
Check Itunes. Lovefilm streaming app for iOS is available.
For me this TAblet is useless. So little storage. I don't get great Broadband where i live, so i can't stream anything.
Peter Hudson 28 September, 2011 22:30
It's odd. When the first iPad was announced. People scoffed at it's lack of cameras and it's poor web browsing experience. This thing has no cameras and no web browser.
Isabel Gracias 28 September, 2011 23:18
amazon has nuked tablet industry
Read my review on Amazon Kindle Fire on
http://www.gizmo-review.net/2011/09/kindle-fire-tablet-first-impressions.html
anonymous 29 September, 2011 00:05
Why is it that ALL journalists enthusiastically quote the current exchange rate for a product's price, when it's announced in USD, indicating that the total after the conversion is going to be the ACTUAL price when that product is launched in the UK?
This either means the journalists naive beyond belief or in cahoots with the manufacturer (in this case, Amazon) or simply have NO GRASP of product marketing and economics.
So it costs $199 in the US. Does Luke Westaway seriously thing that it will cost the converted equivalent price in the UK?
It will be more likely to cost £199 or more. Simple as that.
The sooner you stop pretending or quoting useless GBP costs for a product that's clearly yet to be marketed outside the US, the better it is for your reputation as a so-called respected journalist.
anonymous 29 September, 2011 08:56
He's not indicating that it will cost £139 in the UK, he's giving a conversion so others can gauge the value of the Fire to US customers. Would you rather they said nothing? I think other readers without XE.com built into their brains would rather the conversion was included.
anonymous 29 September, 2011 13:26
Can you order this from amazon.com for uk use?
anonymous 1 October, 2011 16:06
You should get a new amazon so that you can read all the eBooks out there. The new e-ink kindle looks like better value for money, and it's smaller.
http://keelbyunited.co.uk/blog/Under_13_1011_Blog_Pitchsize.html