Amazon Kindle Fire 2 Coming in July - Can it Compete With Google Nexus 7?

Amazon is planning to unveil its next generation Kindle Fire at a launch event scheduled on 31 July, reports CNET, quoting an unnamed source.

The Kindle Fire 2 is set to will feature a camera and physical volume-control buttons since there were complaints that the original Kindle Fire has only on-screen volume controls. The source did not disclose much on the processor, Bluetooth connectivity or on the storage capacity and expansion capabilities.

Amazon is also expected to introduce a new Kindle e-reader too with an integrated light, solving one of the main issues with E-Ink screens, in that they cannot be read in the dark.

The Kindle Fire is yet to make an appearance in the UK, though the decision by Amazon to welcome apps from developers in the UK last week, is a clear indicator that the Fire is on its way to these shores - with July a likely date.

With news of a Kindle Fire 2 emerging, it is liklely that Amazon will launch the updated version in the UK rather than the original.

A few days ago Digitimes reported that Amazon was planning to launch a new 7in tablet PC at the beginning of the third quarter and for that the company was expected to reduce the price of the existing Kindle Fire to $149 (approximately £95). Amazon may be following in the footprints of Apple which brought down the price of its iPad 2 when it introduced the new iPad.

The report claims that Amazon's new 7in tablet will feature a screen whose resolution will be of 800 x 1280 pixels. The device will be priced at $199 (approximately £130) and the rest of the specifications will be similar to the existing model.

It had been reported that Amazon was planning on launching large 8.9in and 10.1in versions of the Kindle Fire, but the company has reportedly stopped the development of these two models which were scheduled for either a fourth quarter 2012 or first quarter 2013.

Google Challenge

And it appears as if Amazon is not the only major company looking to launch a new 7in tablet.

Google is planning to unveil its 7in tablet at the I/O developers conference at San Francisco. News of the launch of the Nexus 7 tablet was all but confirmed when Gizomo Australia claimed to have got hold of a training document containing complete specifications of Google's upcoming tablet.

The training document reveals that Google's 7in tablet is dubbed as Nexus 7 and will be manufactured by Asus. Nvidia's Tegra 3 chip featuring a quad-core processor will power the tablet. The clock speed of the processor is set to be 1.3GHz, and will be paired with a GeForce 12-core GPU and 1GB of RAM.

The tablet will have an IPS display with a resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels. which will provide 178-degree viewing angle. The tablet will also feature a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip which will help power Google Wallet.

The Nexus 7 will come with two storage variants; 8GB and 16GB. The 8GB model will be priced at $199 and the 16GB at $249 (approximately £160). The tablet will have a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera and a promised battery live of nine hours.

The most important feature is Google's Nexus 7 will run on Android's upcoming OS 4.1 (Jelly Bean) making it the first device to run the new OS.