Amazon announces cheaper Kindles and Kindle Fire tablet

Amazon is jumping into the tablet race in what may be the first company that can almost compete with Apple and iPad. Only available for pre-order, the Kindle Fire is a 7-inch touch controlled tablet that will be shipping mid-November in time for Christmas. The new device has a smaller screen than iPad and has very little on device storage as you’ll keep most of the content you’ll buy in the cloud. But for $199, it’s priced to battle the much more popular iPad. In addition to the Kindle Fire, Amazon has released a new $99 Kindle Touch e-ink reader, along side a 3G touch model for $149 and non-touch model for $79).

Check out the Kindle Fire on Amazon, the Kindle Touch or the new non-touch Kindle

We plan to do a more in-depth post later on the new Kindle Touch device, comparing it along side iPad. The new Kindles are in Amazon’s words, ‘premium products at non-premium prices’, and since these devices are good deals, we bring them to your attention. No Kindle would be complete without content. Amazon has positioned itself to be a major competitor to Apple by having not only the ebooks but the movies, tv shows and some apps ready for their own tablet. But while they’re entering the market with the media to support such a device (as Apple did building the iTunes Store), to beat Apple on price Amazon is releasing a less feature-rich tablet.