SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Online retail giant Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) on Wednesday announced the launch of two all-new Kindle e-reader models, three all-new Fire tablets and also introduced the Fire OS 4 'Sangria.' With the models unveiled, Amazon is trying to target different segments in the market, including kids with the new Fire HD Kids Edition. All the new models launched are available for pre-order today, with deliveries to start in October.
The launch of new models by Amazon comes close of the heels of a market wave created by two technology giants, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (SSNLF) and Apple, Inc. (AAPL), earlier in the month with big ticket smartphone model launches.
The Seattle, Washington-based company launched two all-new Kindles e-readers, the Kindle Voyage at a price point of $199 and another small, light, and portable Kindle at just $79, the cheapest from Amazon.
The Kindle Voyage, the 7th generation of Kindle, is Amazon's most advanced e-reader, with the thinnest ever design, brightest, highest resolution and high-contrast next-gen paperwhite display, reimagined page turns, new Origami cover and other features.
The other new addition to the e-reader family comes with a 20 percent faster processor, twice the storage, and now features a touch interface and all of the latest features.
Additionally, Amazon also introduced three Kindle Fire tablet models, the Fire HD at a price point of $99 for a 6' model and $139 for a 7' model, as well as the high-end Fire HDX at a price point of $379 and also Fire HD Kids edition at a price point of $149 for a 6' model and $189 for a 7' model.
The new Fire HD 7 and Fire HDX 8.9 tablets will come pre-loaded with the Fire OS 4 that was also launched today. The next generation OS will power all 4th generation Fire tablets and will also be available as a free, over-the-air update for all 3rd generation Fire tablets.
The Fire OS 4 is based on KitKat and adds features and services to make it faster and easier to use. It updates the visual design of the UI and adds profiles so each family member can have their own individual email, Facebook and Twitter accounts, settings such as display brightness, bookmarks, spot in a movie, and game levels. The new OS deeply integrates with the Amazon cloud to further improve performance and ease-of-use, to enable cross-platform syncing.
The new powerful and portable Fire HD comes in five fun color choices, with crisp and vivid over 1 million pixels HD display, fast 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, front and rear-facing cameras, Dolby Digital Audio, and more.
Meanwhile, the Fire HDX 8.9 is powered by the latest generation quad-core 2.5 GHz processor and a 70 percent faster graphics engine. The tablet combines a startlingly light design and stunning HDX display with Dynamic light control, exclusive Dolby Atmos and the latest Dolby Audio.
It also comes with the thinnest and lightest full-featured blue-tooth connectible keyboard with a trackpad, and the fastest Wi-Fi, with support for 802.11ac MIMO which delivers up to 4x the peak bandwidth.
It is the first tablet with Dolby Atmos, plus loud and immersive audio that is twice as loud as Apple's iPad Air. It is also 20 percent lighter than iPad Air.
The Fire HD Kids edition comes with a quad-core processor for great performance, a vivid HD display, front- and rear-facing cameras, Dolby Digital Audio, and unlimited access to Amazon's unmatched content ecosystem, including 5,000 books, 33 million movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games. It also comes with an unprecedented two-year no questions asked guarantee, with free replacements even if kids break it.
AMZN closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $23.47, down $1.68 or 5.49% on a volume of 0.63 million shares.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX