[INFO] Kindle Fire 2 Live Event

In a little while, Amazon is holding its yearly press event.


Last year, Amazon announced, along with updated Kindle's, the release of the Kindle Fire.


While there were quite a few major device-releases last year, the Kindle Fire is one that, for me, stood out the most.






While Apple continued to be Apple, and released a minor update to its immensely popular iPad, the iPad2, the rest of the tablet manufacturers mainly focused on beating it in specifications. Amazon's Kindle Fire, by itself somewhat limited in performance, broke the rule by looking at the big picture.


With the success of the Kindle over the years, Amazon build-up an extensive distribution system for eBooks, and with Kindle apps for nearly all platforms, it found its way onto many of its competitor devices. Also it's Android App-store, with its unique Free app of the Day advertising strategy resulted in Amazon app-installs finding its way onto many devices. Aside from that, Amazon Prime, its free-2-day-shipping subscription plan started to turn into a Netflix competitor by offering a large collection of movies and TV shows, for free.


The Kindle Fire bundled all these services into a single device.





During the Live Event, it is expected that Amazon will be releasing its successor, the Kindle Fire 2, along with a possible larger version, and, if the rumors are true, a possible smartphone announcement as well.


I'm not too sure about what an Amazon phone would do, unless they offer free service on it like they do with some of the higher-end Kindle's, but after last years wake-up call, competitors like Google and Samsung have been working on content along with updates for their devices. Video rental/purchase, music, magazines etc. Thanks to a recent deal with a media distributor, Prime content has expanded to include popular movies like Iron Man 2, Captain America and Thor, all free with a Prime subscription.


With the $200 Quad-Core Nexus 7 shipping with $25 Play Store credit, and the inclusion of a free movie, Google caught up to Amazon, so in order to compete with that, the Kindle Fire 2 would need to feature similar specifications.


One of my (and many others) biggest gripes, and actually the only one in regards of the original Kindle Fire is its limited storage space. I expect the Kindle Fire 2 to have at least 16GB of memory, but hopefully they will offer a 32GB version, or at least include a memorycard expansion slot in order to be able to store more content on it.





If you are interested in following Amazon's event, there are a couple of websites that run a "live blogging" service.





Amazon Event Liveblog: New Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite And More - ABC News





Amazon Kindle Event Live Blog | Gadget Lab | Wired.com





Live Blog: Amazon press event--will we see a new Kindle Fire? | PCWorld





Live from Amazon's Santa Monica press conference! -- Engadget