With the Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet just past the ripe old age of four months, rumors are starting to swirl about what Amazon has coming next. Twice already this year we’ve seen reports about a 10-inch model being in the works.
Now it looks like we might be getting not one, not two, but three new models of Kindle Fire this year. A new report today from CENS.com in Taiwan claims that Amazon is placing orders for three different displays for new Kindle Fire tablets. Interestingly, none of the displays is ten inches. There are two 7-inch models and one 8.9-inch model. The two 7-inch models have different pixel counts – one is 1024×600, the other is 1280×800. The 8.9-inch display is 1920×1200. The displays suggest that Amazon is preparing to split the Kindle Fire line to target different price points. The lower-resolution 7-inch model will be the low-end model, the second 7-inch model will be the mid-range model, and the 8.9-inch model will be the high-end model. With that lineup, Amazon would have the option of keeping the low-end model at the current Kindle Fire’s $200 price point, or selling the mid-range model for $200 and aiming even lower with the low-end model.
At this point everything is still just rumor and speculation. Amazon could do just about anything with the Kindle Fire line at this point. One thing they are not likely to do, however, is release new models of Kindle Fire before the third quarter of this year at the earliest. The current of Kindle Fire was released in November, and has only been on the market for four months. Releasing a new lineup now is likely to annoy customers who ponied up $200 less than half a year ago for their Kindle Fire.