Amazon unveils “Kindle Fire” priced $199
29 Sep 2011
Amazon.com Inc yesterday unveiled its long-awaited "Kindle Fire'' that comes with a mass market-friendly $199 price tag. According to industry experts the device would give Apple Inc's two-year-old iPad a run for its money.
They add with the arrival of the much anticipated gadget, though lacking many of the high-tech bells and whistles common on tablets from cameras to 3G wireless connection, would queer the pitch for a raft of devices based on Google Inc's Android.
The software drives tablets made by Samsung, Motorola, Asustek, HTC and LG Electronics.
The gadget was unveiled to a packed audience by dotcom entrepreneur and billionaire-CEO Jeff Bezos. He hopes the gadget would wed Amazon's books, movies, music and other content with cloud or internet-based storage and web browsing.
According to Tim Stevens, editor-in-chief of gadget review website Engage, people had been waiting for a tablet for 200 bucks for a long time and this was the best he had seen.
The Kindle Fire tablet comes with a 7-inch screen, free data storage over the internet and a new browser called Amazon Silk. Amazon expects shipments to start on 15 November hitting store shelves at the time of the peak holiday shopping season.
Fire would retail at a price less than half that of iPad thanks to the stripping out of costlier components and features.