It is widely expected that Amazon will unveil its first Android tablet at a press event on September 28th. TechCrunch.com, which already spent time with the tablet, now reports that the tablet will be known as the Kindle Fire.
Along with Gdgt.com, they report that the Kindle Fire will bear a striking resemblance to the BlackBerry PlayBook because both products were designed and built by Quanta. More details are also emerging about the specifications: It will apparently be powered by a dual-core TI OMAP chip (slower than that of the RIM PlayBook to keep costs down?) and a heavily modified version of Google Android (perhaps version 2.1).
The two sites have very different opinions of the Kindle Fire. Gdgt.com‘s Ryan Block has been told by his sources that the Kindle Fire is “pretty poor” and only a “stopgap” to have a tablet for sale in 2011. TechCrunch.com, on the other hand, describes it as a better product than the PlayBook because “the software is better and, more importantly, the content available is much better.”
While Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos may show off the Kindle Fire at the event, it will apparently not ship until the second week of November. The price also could be slightly higher than originally reported at US$300 rather than the rumoured US$250.
While many had expected Amazon to be a real competitor for Apple in the tablet space, it appears that expectations are already coming down. Is the iPad about to claim another victim?
Read more about this story: TechCrunch.com and Gdgt.com