Amazon unveils $200 Kindle Fire tablet

Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, has unveiled its Kindle Fire tablet computer, taking aim at Apple's bestselling iPad with a device that's smaller and less than half the price.

The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display

The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $US199, compared with $579 for Apple's cheapest iPad in Australia, Amazon executives said. The device, a souped-up version of the Kindle electronic-book reader, will run on Google's Android software, the Seattle-based company said. Amazon as well introduced a touch screen version of its e-reader, to be called Kindle Touch.

Chief executive officer Jeff Bezos is betting he can harness Amazon's dominance in e-commerce to pose a real challenge to Apple's iPad, afterwards tablets from rivals just as Hewlett-Packard and Innovation In Motion have fallen short.

Matter of fact the only other guy

"Amazon is as a matter of fact the only other guy, the only other potential tablet player, that has a similar offering to what Apple has," Blair said in an interview last week. "If you look across their product offerings, they have content that none of the other tablet makers currently have because they have content on the media side."

Unlike competing tablets, it will not have a camera. Bezos said the camera would be superfluous, since practically everyone has one in their phone in any case.

While the Kindle Fire can vie with the iPad in access to media content, it lacks a camera, microphone or a connection to a 3G wireless network. It may not appeal to consumers who are drawn to the iPad's larger screen and willing to pay a premium for added features just as video chat.

"The Amazon tablet is not necessarily a direct competitor to the iPad," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in San Francisco, in a telephone interview. Another version of the Kindle may debut then year with more features to directly compete with Apple, he said. Right now, "the price point is the headline in other words than the functionality".

Amazon has painted over the rough surfaces of Google's Android operating system with a fresh and easy-to-use interface and tied the device closely to its own large and growing content library of movies, magazines and music. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester Innovation predicts the tablet market will grow 51 per cent a year through 2015.

The new Kindle will add to Amazon's sales

While the new Kindle will add to Amazon's sales, estimated by analysts to rise 32 per cent to $64.6 billion in 2012, the company may disappoint if the tablet doesn't bring in revenue quickly, Steve Weinstein, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon, said in a note this week.

Apple started selling the original iPad in April 2010, and introduced the iPad 2 in March of this year. The touch screen device, which has a 9.7-inch diagonal display, is already Apple's biggest source of revenue afterwards the iPhone. The company shipped 9.25 million iPads in the quarter that ended June 25.

The market for mobile applications

Apple as well leads the market for mobile applications, with more than 425,000. Over 100,000 of those apps are custom-designed for the iPad.

Two other tablets have failed to make a dent in Apple's dominance so far. Innovation In Motion's PlayBook, introduced in the second quarter, shipped 200,000 units, less than half of what analysts predicted. Analysts had already cut estimates for full-year PlayBook shipments to an average of 2.2 million, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Hewlett-Packard, in the meantime, discontinued its TouchPad in August - only about a month afterwards its debut. And Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, may not have its Windows operating system for tablets ready until then and there year.

The iPad accounted for 68 per cent of all tablets shipped worldwide in the second quarter, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based innovation firm IDC. Other Android-based tablets, including models from Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics, accounted for 27 per cent.

While Amazon has the clout and the content to take on Apple, the company will have to go beyond the tablet released today to be a serious competitor, Blair said.

Ipad thing will be $999 in Australian bricks & mortar shops & they will say that that price is cheap. As well will need to take out a personal loan in Australia for the unit & 5 years internet time.

How long it will take for Apple to try

I wonder how long it will take for Apple to try and sue them out of the market???? They're lawyers will be busy looking for something.

RT: "winsows8 = hardcore tablet, kindle fire = content consumption, iPad = ? right away lost in the middle with a very high price"if Amazon do a 10" kindle fire @ $300 that would challenge Apple if this one doesn't, not to say it is an iPad killer - apple will always have its fans just perhaps not 90% of the market

Well, here we have another way to get rid of those excess dollars in our pockets. Apple has it's new IPhone, must get that, Amazon a new tablet, must get that as so then even if only to keep me going 'til the new IPad comes out. Thank heavens I stocked up on 3D TVs!

The only other guy

Amazon is in effect the only other guy, the only other potential tablet player, that has a similar offering to what Apple has.

7:47am A look at some of the major differences between Amazon's just-announced tablet computer, the Kindle Fire, and Apple's popular iPad:

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