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Seems Amazon is preparing Kindle Fire refresh and the boys at The Verge have gotten themselves first dibs on a purported leaked image of the device. Not much you can tell by looking at only the front of a device (they generally all look the same) and while we expect most of the upgrades will be found under the hood, we can’t help but notice the gawd-awful software keys along the right side of the device. Looks like we can expect, at the very least, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on the new Kindle Fire.
Word is, Amazon will also launch their long-rumored 10-inch tablet along side their 7 incher but we wont have to wait much longer to find out. Amazon’s throwing a launch event for something next week and Phandroid will be on-hand to bring you the latest.
What do you guys think? Should Google be worried?
I’m sure the next kindle will be alright and all…but if you visit this site often and buy a kindle fire over the nexus 7 you’re #doingitwrong
The only people I could see buying the kindle fire over the Nexus 7 are the people who bought the first and have no clue about the Nexus 7.
me :(
and i can let you know that the lack of hardware buttons SUCK.
huh?
What if the next Kindle is 10″?
If that’s it…..o.O Also, the aspect ratio makes me think they are trying to compete with the iPad Mini..
First thing they would have to do is make sure it weighs less. But no, I don’t think it will have much over the Nexus 7…
NI don’t think they should be worried in the least bit. While, for what it was, the Kindle Fire wasn’t a TERRIBLE device, it wasn’t amazing either. The Nexus 7 rules and im not sure an Amazon device will be able to crush it.
I don’t think google cares all that much. They have already sold a ton of Nexus 7s, and if the new Kindle Fire does well, thats still more users on the Android platform (even if a modified one)
I think Google would prefer the fire didn’t exist considering it has absolutely no built in Google Services. It has the Amazon Appstore and not Google Play.
I think they would care. The Nexus 7 exists because Amazon hurt google with the original fire in the form of content sales. Google wants people using Play, not buying crap from Amazons online offerings.
Amazon fails. I know a few people who sold their Kindle Fires soon after they got it because it SUCKED.
Looks like 4:3 aspect, sadly that makes it a non starter. Personal preference is widescreen.
Nexus 7 > Kindle Fire, iPad Mini. Nuff said.
I sold my fire immediately it was proprietary bs device only good for reading and media it was way too limited. I think this will be a little bigger and faster and less limited but amazon does offer a great service.
Its all good for google whose primary objective is selling ads and selling google services. Be it on N7 or fire its all good to google. And quite frankly the one strong thing amazon can contribute to android is its PR dollars. N7 PR and Fire PR will help drown out some of apple mini PR. Apple PR will probably be greater than N7 + Fire PR so they mind as well work together and compete against each other in a cordial way.
This makes no sense. Google services are removed on the Fire. Amazon app store for apps, Amazon ebooks and instant prime for media. The only revenue google gets from it is in search. Now, that is still a nice chunk of revenue but with the recent push for the use of google play, I cannot imagine pr being a motivator. The last fire had an initial surge but the sales dropped off dramatically after that. This will not hurt 7 sales.
If they give us Text to speech, I’ll only buy their tablets. If they don’t I’ll never buy their tablet.
Ugly tablet. KILL IT WITH… oh wait.
I think this will sell over the nexus 7 simply because Amazon will market the hell out of it. I’ve only seen one nexus 7 commercial and when the fire was released it was all over the TV. I’ve mostly seen the 7 commercials on YouTube. I wish Google would make more commercials showing features most people the use android….. anything have not idea what is capable of.
This is in the midst of changing. They were advertising the Nexus 7 heavy at the Olympics apparently and have a series of commercials ready to go. I don’t usually watch my cable but it is a safe bet that they will be there. Not to mention the fact that google is selling Nexus 7’s so fast that it can’t keep up as is, I can’t imagine the fire beating it.
Screw Kindle Fire get me a Nexus 10.1 thats what I really want give it to me google.
The original Kindle Fire didn’t have hardware buttons, either. so it’s not really much of an indication of android version.
I’m quite content w/my XYBOARD running ANDROID 4.0.4,but,if I were looking for a 10″ tablet that’s priced competitively w/whatever AMAZON has to offer, I’d pick up a MOTOROLA XOOM WI-FI, @ least it has ANDROID 4.1 & expandable memory.
Google made Android open source because they welcome such experiments. Before Amazon, nobody took Android tablets seriously. Amazon got lots of people on an Android tablet, which is what developers needed to hear. Then it becomes pretty easy to offer the same app on Google Play for the other tablets.
I just read the kindle fire 2 will have Nokia maps! This is a complete fail!