With Sony and Samsung vying for the spotlight at last week's IFA show while Nokia and Motorola Mobility keep tech journalists busy on Wednesday, that leaves Amazon as the last one out the door to announce new products ahead of Apple's own event next week.
In case you haven't heard, Amazon is holding a press conference on Thursday, September 6 in Santa Monica, California where the e-tailer is widely expected to introduce new Kindles -- including a refresh of the seven-inch Kindle Fire which many touted as an "iPad killer" after its introduction last year.
Of course, the Kindle Fire didn't kill the iPad, but it did show the world there was a market for seven-inch tablets at a $199 price point. While Apple has yet to offer a so-called "iPad mini" in retaliation, Android maker Google fired their own shot across Amazon's bow back in June with the debut of the Nexus 7, a much slicker tablet with the same pricing and better specs, manufactured by partner Asus.
So how will Amazon respond to the dual threat of Google and rumors that Apple will release an "iPad mini" in October? Let's have a look.
Many pundits expect Amazon to offer a larger Kindle Fire -- something closer to the 9.7-inch iPad, in fact. Back in July, Staples president Demos Parneros actually predicted the company would introduce five or even six new Kindles, with one of them being a 10-inch model.
Since then, leading speculation has waned considerably on such talk. After all, the original Kindle Fire was the first seven-inch tablet to prove there was a market for such devices, so why mess with success?
More likely is an upgrade to the existing Kindle Fire, introducing a better display with 1280 x 800 screen resolution that could include a metal frame around an otherwise plastic construction, keeping manufacturing costs low while beefing up the overall build quality.
One thing the Kindle Fire redux will surely offer is a significant reduction in thickness -- last year's model looks positively chubby when held next to the Nexus 7, so Amazon is going to have to put the tablet on a diet.
Other niceties rumored to be included: A front-facing camera with mic to allow Skype calling from the tablet, hardware volume keys (yay!), an HDMI port, more onboard storage, a faster processor and the possibility of a GPS chip for onboard maps (more on that in the next section).
Historically, Amazon has been more interested in pushing its content than hardware, although the e-tailer hasn't been shy about touting the Kindle Fire as its all-time best-seller, right up through last week's press release announcing the tablet was now sold out.
The biggest competitive advantage of the Kindle Fire was access to Amazon's Instant Video service, which Amazon recently introduced on the iPad. So what's left?
Amazon has spent the summer adding new weapons to its software arsenal, including GameCircle (the company's answer to Apple's GameCenter), scan and match for Amazon Cloud Player (a nod to iTunes Match, right down to the $24.99 per year pricing) and loads of new movie and TV show content for its Amazon Prime Instant Video offering (which can also be accessed from the iPad).
A recent Reuters report also claimed that Amazon will be adding Nokia Maps to the next Kindle Fire, although it's unknown whether that indicates the inclusion of a GPS chip or if the tablet will use Wi-Fi triangulation to make the magic happen.
While Amazon forked an older version of Android for last year's model, we're hoping to see the company do the same again this year, but with a more recent version -- Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich at the very least, if not 4.1 Jelly Bean. Hey, we can dream, can't we…?
Finally, that leaves the more classic Kindle lineup -- you know, the e-readers with the black-and-white screens.
Following discounts and stock clearances on older Kindles and accessories last month, Amazon is expected to debut a new generation of the e-reader featuring a front-lit screen. According to The Verge, the technology will be incorporated into a new Kindle Touch with "Paperwhite," which is said to bring "higher contrast, high resolution, integrated lighting and eight weeks of battery life."
So what about those "Kindle phone" rumors? With the ecosystem in place, the time sure feels right to unleash the hounds -- er, smartphones -- especially when Amazon can move them directly, especially if they're unlocked and won't require carrier partners. (Heck, we'd buy one!)
Of course, Amazon might even have a few surprises up its sleeve for Thursday, but we'll all just have to wait until tomorrow at 10:30am PST to find out what they might be…
Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
(Images courtesy of The Verge, GottaBeMobile.com)
