Amazon has just announced a modified version of the Kindle Fire and it has some impressive features that are going to ensure its continued presence in the 7” tablet segment and perhaps make it an industry leader soon. While the popular tablet is going to continue with the Android platform in the new version, that doesn’t mean that Google’s open source platform is going strong. In fact, it might just end up being a rather interesting scenario where the tablet is going to flourish but the entire Android ecosystem may collapse in the future owing to the issues it faces currently.
All eyes are on Amazon as it takes on the market with its low priced device. When speculation first began to increase that Amazon is going to modify the Kindle Fire and sell a new version, the first thing on most people’s minds was whether it could outperform the Google Nexus 7. The most important areas where the retail giant had to focus on were a better display and the price. For $199, the Nexus 7 is a steal because of the amazing display and the smooth performance. The new Kindle has an improved display and is even ad-supported to reduce the costs of the device. The base version now sells at $165 and is every bit as good as the Nexus 7.
When the Kindle Fire was first launched, it was a good blend of the ebook and music ecosystem that Amazon developed but it failed to achieve the same integration that the iPad had. This might have been a setback then but with the improvements that came with Android Jellybean, the new Kindle Fire is not going to have any such problems. However, while the Android platform is offering all the solutions to Amazon, it might be hard for the platform to keep going owing to the recent lawsuit between Apple and Samsung that was indirectly a defeat for it.
While Amazon can go ahead and use the platform’s open source code and develop its own version, it might happen that Android will have to shut down because of legal issues. In fact, if Amazon can develop its own OS, it would be able to control the entire 7” tablet market. Surely, the Android applications will not run on it but if Amazon manages to work like RIM and ports the Dalvik VM, it can use the entire market!
