Amazon Wants To Burn Hole in iPad Share with Kindle Fire

As expected, Amazon launched its iPad challenger, the Kindle Fire, at a press event held in New York City on Wednesday.

The company also launched three new Kindle e-readers at the event but the Kindle Fire was undoubtedly the star of the show.

Leading the event was Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos who revealed that the Kindle Fire will be sold for $199. This is certainly confirmation that the new Amazon tablet really undercuts the iPad price by “hundreds” as reported by The New York Post recently.

The Kindle Fire is about the same size as the Nook Color from rival Barnes & Noble. However, the main difference between the two companies and their devices are as far from each other as night and day. Whereas the Barnes & Noble Nook Color is just like a glorified colored e-reader, Amazon has higher hopes for the Kindle Fire.

The new tablet runs on an Amazon-customized version of the Android mobile OS. It connects to Amazon’s own store for the Kindle Fire and is arguably being positioned by the internet commerce giant to become a major platform not only for selling books but also applications (which includes games) and media like videos (movies and maybe TV series episodes) and music.

It is a tablet after all and analysts have said while the blogosphere and the tech media circles were abuzz with rumors about the tablet that the Kindle Fire might just be the best iPad competitor to come out yet. It also has the potential to hurt iPad competitors, as noted by JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz recently.

The $199 price tag certainly is enticing, don’t you think? It’s even lower than the reported $250 price tag suggested by reports which came out after Amazon sent out invites last Friday for an event in New York City. Given that Amazon already has a fairly consistent and loyal user base who use their site, launching the Kindle Fire also gives Amazon the advantage of already having regular users.

For those who are looking for specifications of the Kindle Fire, here’s what we gather so far from reports: Gorilla Glass-protected 7-inch IPS (in-plane switching) display, dual-core processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB storage, Wi-Fi, 14.6 ounces. Sadly, the Kindle Fire does not have a camera. But for $199, it’s still bound to get a second look.

Tell us what you think about the new Kindle Fire in the comments section below.