Techcrunch: The Kindle "Fire"

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by markdek

Surely, "wildfire" would have been better than "fire".

or WyldFyre

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by stonetools

It sounds pretty much as expected- a Nook Color clone based on a fork of Android. For the people who are disappointed : What did they expect- some kind of Android dream tablet, as good as the iPad but half the price, with full on access to the google market, and assorted bells and whistles? Time to give up hunting that unicorn.

An Amazon version of an Android tablet is exactly what I was hoping for. If Apple can produce a great tablet then I see no reason why Amazon couldn't do so as well.

Here are my recommendations for the name of this 7" device --

• Ceasefire
• Backfire
• Misfire

[stonetools]

FWIW, some more rumors ( hattip Kindle World Blog):

Amazon is set to release two new Kindle black-and-white e-ink models in addition to an aggressively-priced 7-inch tablet with a color LCD screen on Wednesday, with the company considering expanding to larger 10.1-inch and 8.9-inch tablets next year to compete with Apple's iPad.

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has detailed three new products expected to be announced at Amazon's media event on Wednesday.

Kuo notes that the most anticipated device, a 7-inch media tablet codenamed "Hollywood," will run on the older OMAP 3 processor from Texas Instruments and feature 512MB of RAM. Contrary to a recent report from TechCrunch that claims the device will launch as the "Kindle Fire" in the second week of November, he expects the device to launch in late September with estimated shipments of 3 million units by the end of the year. The analyst also corroborated a recent report that Quanta has been contracted to produce the device.

Amazon appears to be betting heavily on marketing the device as an affordable tablet meant to take advantage of its digital media ecosystem, including magazines, music, video and apps. The device is expected to be fairly spartan, as it will reportedly not include a camera, GPS, cover glass or 3G data functionality. Kuo also noted that the tablet will run an older version of Google's Android mobile operating system.

According to a channel check by Kuo, the bill-of-materials for the device is expected to be $180. Amazon may choose to price the device at an aggressive $199, Kuo said. That's cheaper than the $250 price that an earlier report had suggested.

LINK

I seriously doubt that "agressive" pricing ("Agressive" pricing tends to be code for "fantasy pricing"). I've also heard that Tech Crunch is suggesting a $300 price tag . Oh well, 24 hours of rumor-mongering to go...

[carld]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

You forgot about free stuff. A dream tablet must come with free stuff.

It should be introduced Johnny Storm (from the Fantastic 4) holding a kindle, saying "flame on", and turning it into Fire. (we need some flame emoticons)

That would be geeky, and cool.

[Bluestar59]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

the mock up




appears to be a blackberry promotional image



manipulated in photoshop. would that constitute a copyright infringement ?

Hey, maybe they just re-branded the Blackberry Playbook and added their own software! RIM probably had hundreds of thousands of Playbooks lying around unsold anyway.

[LesRS]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

LOVE this commenter quote:

LMAO!!!!! Too good!

[TadW]

Mockups or real deal?

[boswd]

Originally Posted by TadW

Mockups or real deal?

Attachment 77033
Attachment 77034

mock up is my guess, that appears to be a Samsung Galaxy Tab, the original 7inch one.

[TadW]

Originally Posted by boswd

mock up is my guess, that appears to be a Samsung Galaxy Tab, the original 7inch one.

My thought exactly.

Cover for the Amazon Kindle Fire 7 Inch Tablet 4G 4th Gen 2011 Android 3.2

http://www.amazon.com/Navitech-Genui.../dp/B005HV17L8

http://www.amazon.com/Navitech-Genui.../dp/B005HV17NQ

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by stonetools

More names for the 10":

The Hellfire
The Firestorm
The Incinerator
The Furnace

Maybe we should do a poll.

The Kindle eyePad (apologies to Robert J. Sawyer).

[kjk]

Ryan Block of gdgt has posted an update:

Well, this delay to get the "stopgap" Kindle tablet out in time for the holiday season this year may have pretty serious consequences for early adopters and holiday shoppers: my sources tell me the second-gen Kindle tablet (or Kindle Fire, as it's now been dubbed) will be out in Q1 of 2012 -- yes, that soon. That was always the plan, but the delays of the v1 product have messed up Amazon's release cycle.

And what's worse, the second tablet -- which Amazon didn't just take more or less off the shelf from ODM manufacturer Quanta -- seems to be the device Amazon really believes in.

[Daithi]

Nice post kjk. I'd give you karma, but don't want to screw up all those zeros.

[OtterBooks]

the second tablet -- which Amazon didn't just take more or less off the shelf from ODM manufacturer Quanta -- seems to be the device Amazon really believes in.

That doesn't seem like Amazon's m.o. If it is, I'll lose a fair bit of respect for them.

[djulian]

I just mentioned the name to my wife--she's absolutely not a techie. She hates it when I talk hardware, she hates it more when I talk software. She loves reading on her K3G, she just doesn't care how it works.

I said, "The new tablet's supposed to be called the Kindle Fire."
She said, "Awesome!" and pumped her fist. This was weird.
I said, "Awesome why?"
She said, "I just like it. I like that it works with the Kindle name. And I don't want them to just forget about the Kindle."
I said, "They're not going to do that."
She said, "Good. Did you walk the dog?"

[frahse]

Originally Posted by djulian

I just mentioned the name to my wife--she's absolutely not a techie. She hates it when I talk hardware, she hates it more when I talk software. She loves reading on her K3G, she just doesn't care how it works.

I said, "The new tablet's supposed to be called the Kindle Fire."
She said, "Awesome!" and pumped her fist. This was weird.
I said, "Awesome why?"
She said, "I just like it. I like that it works with the Kindle name. And I don't want them to just forget about the Kindle."
I said, "They're not going to do that."
She said, "Good. Did you walk the dog?"

djulian, and all.

Realize this is a big deal. A lot of money spent. A lot of money to be gained. The PR outfit will have done just like the politicians, and run focus groups on the names and the style. They will have passed it over with and without comment to "canaries" of various types, knowledgeable and otherwise, and watched the reaction, i.e. taped the reaction.

They might have run mock press releases with similiar groups.

They have been doing this all along with models/mockups.