jeffnuttalx: Amazon to release new Kindle Fire to compete with iPad

by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: July 12, 2012 ??Last Updated: July 13, 2012

Amazon released the original Kindle Fire to compete with the iPad and did so with rousing success. Some believe that the Kindle Fire 2 is the version that Amazon really wanted to release. As a low cost alternative to the bloated price of iPad, the Kindle Fire was perfect for those who buy and read books, shop and do the web basics. Gaming and applications that require massive bandwidth or processing power were left to the more expensive tablets.

Now Amazon is preparing to ship a bulked up version of the Kindle Fire that will give the iPad a run for its money while sticking to a base price of less than $200. The biggest news will be the metal frame instead of plastic, plus a quad core Tegra. Enough firepower to do gaming and watch movies is also promised. The screen is variously rumored to be either? 8.9, 9.7 or 10 inches.?

There is also noise about having the Amazon app store replace the Android apps market, plus a new Amazon-centric gaming and social networking feature. While Amazon may continue to lose a bit of money on each device, the web's largest supermarket will have little trouble making up the difference with other sales.

China Times (translated) reports that "According to foreign reports, Amazon will be published in the July 31, the second generation of the Kindle Fire, generation upgrade of specifications than the plastic casing replaced by metal chassis, increasing the camera lens to improve screen resolution, and will increase the game application , hope to narrow the gap with Apple iPad."

But Amazon is fighting a battle on two fronts. Google is set to release its Nexus 7 Tablet, which will offer better resolution and specifications. The Nexus 7? primed for much more than ebook reading.

According to Tech Radar, the Kindle Fire 2 comes with a hunk of junk: It has a Tegra 3 quad-core processor and a 12-core processing unit. This means gaming, movies and applications will work well.? Add in a front facing camera and 1,280 x 800 resolution for a price between $200-$249, and the Nexus might be a worse threat than the iPad.

With the death of Steve Jobs, Apple might be losing some of its gloss. Job's irrational need to destroy Google through expensive and bloodthirsty patent lawsuits has caused the highly popular Samsung devices to be withheld from people who would never buy an Apple to begin with. This, along with some of Apple's other less than stellar activities, has contributed to rising ire against Apple.

There are also rumors of a Kindle Phone that will run on Android and continue the fearsomely low price points that the Kindle Fire offered, according to Tech Reports.

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