Amazon has announced their iPad competitor and as rumor had it, it’s called the Kindle Fire. The biggest news is the price — only 9 for a 14.6 ounce, 7-in IPS 1024×600 169dpi display. It’s dual core, Wi-Fi only, and has only 8GB of storage (plus free Amazon cloud) but again — 9.
If you’re looking for something that resembles the BlackBerry PlayBook[1], is running a fork of Android OS[2], and comes with all the content Amazon is happy to sell you, this could be a very compelling product. But if 9 is still too much for you to spend on a Kindle, just wait — there’s more! They’ve also announced an ultra-cheap classic-style Kindle for just , and a new Kindle Touch at for Wi-Fi only and 9 for 3G. Those are the prices with ad-subsidized “special offers”, however. They’ll cost you – more or so if you want them clean and ad-free.
Also, Amazon remains focused mainly on the US market and its international content offerings don’t look to be improving just yet (though I’ll continue to hold to hope given all the money Apple is making outside the US.)
Kudos to Amazon, though, for doing what Apple so far hasn’t done — release the iPad shuffle and iPad nano tablet price-points into the US market.
And hey, if you’re thinking about pre-ordering, here are some handy links that let you test out the non-Apple waters, but still support your favorite Mobile Nations sites at the same time. Win. Win.
For more on the Kindle Fire, jump over to Android Central‘s new Kindle Fire Forums[3], then jump back here and tell us what you think — did Amazon just announce the first viable iPad competitor?
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