Amazon Ablaze with Kindle Fire Hype
There are rumors regarding Amazon launching a real tablet, not like the Kindles they have right now. And the latest word is that they will unveil the new tablet tomorrow, September 28, as Amazon sent out invites last Friday for a press conference to be held on Wednesday in New York.
Previously, it was reported that the tablet would be called the Amazon Kindle, but sources say that the tablet will now be the Kindle Fire to differentiate them from the current Kindles out in the market. The Kindle Fire is a 7-inch backlit display tablet that looks like the BlackBerry PlayBook, notable because it was designed and built by the same original design manufacturer (ODM), Quanta. It has a full color touch screen and it runs on Google’s Android software and will cost about $250.
With all the tablets available in the market, Amazon’s MP3 service and Kindle bookstore could give it the edge against competitors. And with Amazon clamoring to close deals with major TV networks and movie distributors, the Kindle Fire is probably built to cater video streaming.
Since the Kindle Fire is rumored to look a lot like the PlayBook, the launch could spell trouble for BlackBerry in particular. Their tablet is already doing poorly in the market and the launch of the Kindle Fire could be the death of the PlayBook. The PlayBook is now being offered with a $100-$200 price slash, but RIM states that the price cut is part of a promotional strategy and not to be taken as something in the likes of the HP TouchPad fire sale.
Though the spotlight will be on their press conference tomorrow, we can’t ignore other issues involving Amazon. With Amazon changing the publishing industry with their e-books and Kindles, and their availability in public libraries and schools, some analysts are saying that Amazon is moving in the direction of monopolizing the book industry. Some booksellers and publishers are losing out to Amazon, since most authors now prefer to have their works published as e-books on their network. And Amazon releases e-books earlier than the actual books, so revenue from tangible book sales are often lower than expected. But it seems authors are satisfied with Amazon’s take on the future, and this is only encouraging more authors to go rogue, leaving booksellers and publishers hanging dry. Bookstores are slowly going out of business and if publishers don’t want to end up like them, they better learn to adapt.
And many are. Apple, Google and even Barnes & Noble are striving to remain competitive in the digital publishing space, as the personal cloud enables a new infrastructure around printed media distribution and consumption. Kobo has recently updated its e-reader app to include more social features, spurring some extra sharing capabilities across users and friends.
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