Having just released its new 7-inch custom Android-powered Kindle Fire tablet, industry watchers are already looking to see what the world’s biggest retailer has planned for its rumoured 10.1-inch tablet, expected to launch in 2012.
According to Digitimes, Amazon is likely to choose iPad-maker Foxconn to produce its larger tablet model, with shipments of the 10.1-inch tablet scheduled to begin before the end of 2011, in time for the holiday season.
Foxconn was apparently involved in talks to produce the 7-inch Kindle Fire but “reportedly decided to not take the 7-inch tablet PC orders as the company has been busily working on iPads for Apple,” said sources — ensuring that its rival Quanta Computer secured the orders, a company that is also heavily involved in Apple’s supply chain.
The Kindle Fire launched on Wednesday and sells for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad. The tablet is powered by a fast, powerful dual-core processor and Amazon will offer customers 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, its Amazon Appstore with thousands of popular apps and games, ultra-fast web browsing via Amazon Silk, free cloud storage for all Amazon content.
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Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, instant streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows also, ensuring that the Kindle Fire is primarily a media consumption device, differentiating it from the iPad and its Android rivals. The device will start shipping on November 15.
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