The Kindle Fire has been a roaring success for Amazon with the cheap little tablet that could grabbing a full 16% of the tablet Q4 sales last year even though it was only available for six weeks. And it looks like Bezos & co are looking to capitalise on the increased public awareness of the services by bring out the Fire’s successor in just a few months time according to well-placed sources at the China Times of Taiwan.
Unlike the original Kindle Fire, the software layer on Android for the OS and the deep Amazon integration is already built, and if they follow the same style guide as the original – the lead-in time for producing an upgraded version should be relatively short. If the rumours are to be believed then the second generation tablet will be sporting a larger 10″ screen and so would compete more directly with Apple’s market leading iPad 2, but as before the price will be substantially lower. In an effort to make the device even cheaper, this time Amazon will be single handedly picking the parts and designs – something it outsourced to Quanta for the original device at additional expense.
The biggest question with these rumours, however, is whether people actually want a bigger device? Some have been sceptical about this, but whereas the 7″ Kindle Fire would have had a lot of overlap with people’s phones or e-readers, a 10″ Fire would simply compete directly with the iPad in a separate category. If you already have a 7″ Fire then there would be little reason to have both admittedly, but if you are weighing up which tablet to buy alongside you 4.5″ smartphone – then I would plump for a 10″ device every time.
The other question on everyone’s lips, of course, is also when we will start to see these coming across the pond to the UK.