The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet is slated for an announcement in New York at 10am local time today (that’s 3pm this afternoon, UK gadgeteers). But already we’re getting wind that a second, improved tablet might be on its way from Amazon just a few months after the Fire’s debut.
The Kindle Fire 2 has reportedly been pencilled in for a Q1 2012 realease. Why so soon after the first Kindle Fire? Apparently this early 2012 release was always the plan for the second Kindle tablet, but only because the first Fire tablet was supposed to launch earlier this year, but was pushed back by delays. Those delays have now set Amazon’s release schedule askew, and we’re now faced with one tablet following the other in quick succession.
This isn’t wouldn’t be the first time that Amazon has launched two products within months of each other. The Kindle DX, Amazon’s jumbo e-reader geared toward e-ink newspaper reading, appeared on the market just three months after the launch of the Kindle 2 in February 2009. Granted, the Kindle DX was geared to do a slightly different job (and came with a screen almost twice the size of the Kindle 2), but rumour has it that Amazon’s second Fire tablet will be packing not only a larger screen than the first generation Fire’s rumoured 7-inch display, but beefed up internals as well, making this afternoon’s release look like the worse choice.
We’ll have to wait and see if this rumour gets any kind of mention at Amazon’s press conference later today. In the meantime let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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