Amazon unveils Kindle Fire, its entry into the tablet fray

The Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon.com.

IDG News Service - Amazon unveiled its tablet computer, the $199 Android-based Kindle Fire, on Wednesday during a Manhattan launch event.

The Wi-Fi-only tablet has 8GB of storage, with a 1GHz dual-core Texas Instruments' OMAP (Open Multimedia Application Processor), while the display is backlit LCD with a resolution of 1024 x 600. The Fire has a 7-inch multitouch LCD display and weighs 14.6 ounces. It has apps for Amazon storefronts, including its Android app store, MP3, video and cloud services. Unlike iPad 2 and other competitors, the Fire does not have a camera or microphone, but its price and Amazon's proven content will undoubtedly make it a serious threat to steal market share. It comes with free cloud storage for data back up.

The Kindle Fire is available for preorder starting Wednesday, and it will begin shipping on Nov. 15.

"This is unbelievable value," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, during the launch event. "These are premium products at non-premium prices."

The device will have access to content on Amazon's site such as 100,000 movies and TV shows, 17 million songs, apps, millions of books and full-color magazines, Bezos said.

Bezos demonstrated a high-definition movie playing on the tablet, and the Fruit Ninja game being played. The display can show 16 million colors and is based on Gorilla Glass technology for extra protection. TI's dual-core OMAP processor is based on an ARM processor design, which is found in most tablets today including Apple's iPad.

While the Kindle e-book reader is a good way to bring access to e-books, the Kindle Fire is a good way to bring access to other media offered by the company.

"For 15 years we've been building our media business," Bezos said. "We have strong digital offers in every media category."

Amazon's media content can already be watched on TVs, Blu-ray drives and other devices. The songs downloadable through the site are priced starting at $0.69 and can be streamed through the Cloud Player. Apps from Amazon's App Store can be test driven in a sandbox prior to download.

Kindle Fire joins a crowded tablet market dominated by Apple's iPad, which is projected to have a 73.4% market share by the end of the year, according to research firm Gartner. Gartner expects worldwide tablet sales of 63.6 million units this year, a 261.4% increase from the previous year. Tablet sales should reach 326.3 million units by 2015, Gartner said.

Amazon's tablet could become the "only credible iPad competitor in the market," said Sarah Rotman Epps, senior analyst at Forrester Research in a blog entry last month. Amazon's Kindle e-readers and online store already are popular, and Amazon will use its entertainment offerings and cloud infrastructure to boost the tablet's appeal.