The increasingly popular 7″ Kindle Fire is getting a refresh this summer, and will also be getting a 9″ brother according to a report by Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley. He raised his shipment forecast to 14.9 million units, up 2.2 million from his earlier estimate. In a note to clients, he wrote “We believe there is an upward bias, particularly from the new 7- and 9-inch models, which we expect to launch in mid-2012.”
Previous reports had Amazon launching “Hollywood”, a 10-inch quad-core tablet first, but apparently the release got delayed in favor of pushing out an 8.9-incher. It is unclear whether the 9-inch Kindle Fire that may be coming this summer is the same as this 8.9-inch tablet.
Anyone interested in a larger Kindle Fire?
source: BGR
Mixed feelings. I’m addicted to the Fire, my first tablet, but browsing the web on a 7-inch device is frustrating (that so many surf on smartphones amazes me). And while videos look great on the FIre, well, it is a far cry from a TV screen. So, from that perspective, a larger screen would be nice.
OTOH, I, for the first time, am using the Fire to read e-books and magazines and I’d say that anything larger or heavier would be uncomfortable to use for reading.
Which, I suppose, means that we might become a two-Fire family, thus solving other problems..
(Apple’s iPads are out. Besides the fact that the iPad doesn’t support Flash, and more or less locks one in to the Apple ecosphere*, they are simply too expensive for what they do. Our experience with the Fire has confirmed our suspicion that for the price of an iPad, one is better off buying a laptop, netbook or ultra.)
*If we’re going to be locked into something, we prefer Amazon. (Prime wasn’t worth the annual fee for us just for free 2-day shipping on some items; add in the free TV and movies on the Fire and it is.) Especially since it is possible to install at least some Android apps. We’re not impressed by the 100K+ apps available from Apple. Who even knows what they all do let alone needs more than a fraction?
N.B. We found this article on the Fire by using AppyGeek.
I agree that the current Kindle Fire is a nice tablet, but I too have a problem with it not allowing Android Market app. I wasn’t prevented from loading Amazon’s App store or Kindle app on my Acer Iconia. Why should Amazon not recriprocate? But lack of usb and camera on Kindle Fire is a real deal breaker for me.
root it and you can put android market on there, problem solved.
I would love to get it if I was able to access the Android Market app wth it. I own the original 7 inch kindle fire and that’s its biggest drawback, no android market.