Kindle Fire 2 to launch by end of Q3 2012

The news of the next Amazon Kindle Fire aka Kindle Fire 2 appears to be trickling in on a regular basis. This time around the news comes via trusted tech website AllThingsD who have a great track record when it comes to product information before an announcement. The website reports that sources familiar with Amazon have revealed that they plan to announce the next generation Kindle Fire by the third quarter of this year and the projected launch date of the tablet is expected to be by the end of the said quarter.

The report states, “Sources familiar with Amazon’s plans tell AllThingsD that the company hopes to debut the next iteration of the Kindle Fire in the second half of this year; the current launch window is late in the third quarter. To do so, Amazon has been approaching developers to bring them up to speed on the new hardware.”

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Kindle Fire 2 to launch by the third quarter

The website also shares a few details on what they have heard might feature in the tablet. Sources familiar with the matter have told them that the tablet will be thinner and lighter than the original and will come with a built in camera as well. Apart from that, the display will be improved upon as well and will sport a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels.

The report states, “Developers familiar with the device have been instructed to build their apps for a display with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, which is a bit different than the 1024 x 600 display of the current Kindle Fire. Not only will that apparently make it sharper and more vibrant, it will give it a different aspect ratio, as well. In other words, the display has an entirely new width-to-height ratio.”

Explaining this feature, DisplayMate President Raymond Soneira told AllThingsD, “The really interesting thing here is that the screen shape is changing slightly: From an aspect ratio of 1.71 (tall and narrow in its standard Portrait mode) to an aspect ratio of 1.60.” Soneira goes on to state that though the next generation Kindle Fire’s resolution from 1024 x 600 to 1280 x 800 may not sound like much of an increase, there will be a 67 percent increase in total pixels and it will be visually significant giving the display a PPI of 216.

Prior to this report, it was rumoured the Kindle Fire 2 will have better integrated lighting and more hardware improvements. No details about the processor and the other specs have been revealed yet. When it was first launched, the Kindle Fire was touted by many to be an ‘iPad Killer’, primarily because of the price tag that it came attached with. It faced competition from the likes of the Barnes & Noble Nook tablet, but the competition is going to be even more massive this time, if the pricing of the Fire 2 and the Nexus 7 is going to be similar. Amazon may also announce Kindle Touch, which will be at a lower price point. What this means is that ‘low budget but non-performing’ tablets will soon be phased out as the world shifts focus to decent quality products selling at ultra-low prices.

The other rumours floating around indicate that Amazon is likely to launch a 10.1-inch Kindle Fire in the third quarter of 2012, while tentatively suspending the launch of a speculated 8.9-inch model. The move by Amazon to launch a 10.1-inch tablet is so that the brand can directly compete with the likes of Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, both of which feature a display size larger than 7-inches.