Amazon unveiled the successors to its Kindle Fire at a press event in Santa Monica last week. The seven-inch version will have twice the RAM of its predecessor, “40 per cent faster performance” with a new processor, and longer battery life. The new 8.9-inch version has a 1920x1200 display at 254 pixels per inch and will be available with a 4G LTE option for a significant extra cost.
Now that the Kindle store has officially launched in India, with Junglee.com, Indians should be expecting these products to land here soon enough. But the question arises as to whether this product can work in the Indian market.
In terms of the tablet scenario in the country right now, we basically have three broad categories around which the market revolves. The first choice is to go for the cheapest products, ranging from about `7,000 to `9,000. The major players in this sector are companies like Intex and Micromax. Then, of course, there’s the other extreme, the `25,000+ range, where you have the iPad and the bigger Galaxy Tab. These are premium products and they get you through pretty much all that people look for in a tablet.
The ones in the middle are where the Kindle Fire and other variants of the first category tablets lie. This is a developing price point and definitely the most amusing to observe the market from. They’re not as flimsy as category one, and they definitely won’t hurt your wallet either. But this is the category where you make a conscious buying decision.
Every product in this category needs to be separately examined and analysed for suitability, but I’m inclined to say that the Google Nexus 7 tablet (not yet available in India) is pretty much the only choice you need to consider.
I’m also highlighting the fact that Amazon has really stepped it up with the Kindle Fire. It’s a really good tablet in the sense that it at least works for just about everything you’d expect from an iPad or Galaxy Tab, but at half price.