August 30th, 2012Top StoryAmazon Kindle Rumor Roundup: Everything We Think We KnowBy Leslie Horn
How Many Kindles?Staples' U.S. retail chief Demos Parneros recently said Amazon was prepping "five or six" new tablets. What that likely means—if there's any basis to it at all—is several storage options in two different sizes. So theoretically, a 7-inch Kindle Fire with 8GB, another with 16GB, and another with 32GB, as well as a 10-inch Fire with those same configurations. In that same vein, there have also been murmurings of a 4G Kindle Fire. However, that intel comes by way of an analyst and well, analysts say a lot of crap that you'd think they dreamed and said out loud but they wish they hadn't. And while 4G has become table stakes for premium tablets in the last year, it's equally possible that Amazon will forego it to keep the price down. Oh, and don't forget that there are new Kindle Touches coming as well. More on those below. How Big?The rumor that just won't die—literally it's been walking around since before the original Kindle Fire was announced last September—is that Amazon has a 10-inch Kindle Fire waiting in the wings to join the 7-inch guy on stage. This seems as close to a sure bet as exists in gadget rumordom. Specs?There are reports that Amazon will add a camera to these new Fires—the current model lacks one—presumably front-facing, for video chatting and weirdo self-portraits. However, the low-end Fire might not actually be capable of snapping pics, some rumors have said. If so, expect an extremely low price to make up for it. The current Fire has a dual-core 1GHz processor and a giant battery that takes up a lot of room. That's so much slower than comparable tablets on the market—the Nexus 7, for example, has a quad-core Tegra 3 chip. So we can speculate that the Fires will get at least a modest bump, to give us something faster and more efficient (in fact, that Tegra 3 sounds just about right for the 10-incher). The screen on the new guys will reportedly get a boost, pumping things up to 1280 x 800 resolution. That would change the aspect ratio from 1.71 to 1.60, which wouldn't impact your day to day usage at all so best not to give it a second thought. To be honest, there hasn't been much in the way of Kindle Fire 2 guts rumors, but it seems safe to speculate that both tablets will be in line with competitors like the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Tab. How much?Please do not be alarmed. The follow-up Fires will probably be priced around the same level as their forebears. Meaning we're supposedly looking at a base 7-inch model coming in at $200. Considering how popular the last batch was, and considering the price point was a big part of that, Amazon would be psycho to up the cost. The 10-incher, obviously, will cost a bit more. We're anticipating something in the $400 ballpark, since no one undercuts like Amazon. Granted, the 10-inch Galaxy Tab is $400 and no one's really buying that, so Amazon's comparable tablet could possibly go even lower. Front-lit Kindle Touches?A Kindle that you can read alone in your bed in the dark. The reports of a front-lit Kindle have been crawling around for some time, and to be honest Amazon would be crazy not to introduce one. The Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight has been out since April—way too much ground for Amazon to give up already on a feature that consumers actively seek out.  |
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