After a week of speculation, Amazon announced what most experts predicted: the unveiling of the Amazon tablet.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made the announcement Wednesday morning in New York, while also introducing brand new Kindle devices.
The tablet will be named Amazon Kindle Fire, and undercuts other tablets available to consumers. It will be priced at $199, as Amazon hopes to take a bite out of Apple’s iPad, which start at $499.
The fire has the look of the Blackberry Playbook with its 7-inch display and will run a version of Android.
Other features include:
- 14.6 ounces
- A huge library of books and songs
- Free cloud service
- Wifi only
- Amazon Silk Browser
There is also a newsstand feature, where users can subscribe to colorful magazines.
And Amazon isn’t wasting any time pushing out its new product. The Fire is already available for pre-order on the company’s website. It will be released on November 15, and orders are on a first come, first served basis.
Amazon said on its website: “Kindle Fire brings everything we’ve been working on at Amazon for 15 years together into a single, fully-integrated experience for customers – instant access to Amazon’s massive selection of digital content, a vibrant color IPS touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle.”
There are some drawbacks, however. The Kindle Fire doesn’t have an embedded camera and doesn’t offer 3G access. The tablet will come with a free 30-day trial of Amazon’s Prime service—a $79 yearly membership service that streams movies and TV shows.
To go along with its unveiling of its first ever tablet, Amazon also introduced a simple Kindle device priced at $79; the Kindle Touch priced at $99, which features a E Ink display; and Kindle Touch 3G, which just adds 3G service to the device.
