Online retailer Amazon has enjoyed a considerable degree of success in the past few years due to the sales performance of its Kindle e-reader. This week, the company plans to reveal the next item in this product line, the Kindle Fire, at an event in New York City on September 28.
According to TechCrunch, this new Kindle is not a standard e-reader, but a full-on tablet computer. It will run on a version of the Android mobile operating system that has been customized by Amazon with a number of additions, including its own app store that is believed to offer software from many major mobile app developers.
The news source reports that although Amazon’s CEO will be revealing the Kindle Fire on Wednesday, the item will not be ready to ship and be sold until the middle of November.
Technical specifications of the device are not fully known. Confirmed details include a TI dual-core OMAP chip, with an estimated processing speed of around 1.2 GHz, approximately equivalent to that seen in a number of more recent Android-powered tablet computers. It has a 7-inch backlit display.
PC Magazine reported that while the Kindle Fire is likely to have an edge in competing with similar devices from Barnes & Noble and Samsung, it will not cut significantly into the iPad’s sales.
(photo via FT Tech Hub)
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