Amazon on Tuesday announced that it will release a 7-inch tablet called the Kindle Fire November 15. But there could be a 10.1-inch version of the tablet coming too.
According to a Digitimes report, Amazon has tapped Foxconn to produce the larger model. China-based Foxconn is also responsible for manufacturing the bulk of Apple’s iPad. Another Chinese firm, Quanta, however, is manufacturing the 7-inch Kindle Fire. Quanta is also the manufacturer of the BlackBerry PlayBook, although it recently announced that it was cutting production lines for RIM’s tablet, dismissing 1,000 employees from its Taiwan factory.
Foxconn and Amazon already have a relationship. The manufacturer also makes the Kindle e-readers, and many expected it to produce the Fire, but the company reportedly passed on the 7-inch Fire because it was tied up with the iPad.
If Digitimes is correct, the 10.1-inch Kindle Fire will be here soon. It claimed shipments will begin “before year-end 2011 for holiday season demand, according to industry sources.”
There are big expectations for Amazon’s tablet. Many predict that with a $199 price tag and access to the company’s vast offering of content, the Kindle Fire will be the first tablet to present significant competition to the industry-dominating iPad.
Hands-on data about the Fire is scant; Amazon didn’t actually let anyone touch the tablet at its event this week. But PCMag’s lead mobile analyst Sascha Segan said in an "eyes-on" analysis of the tablet "very impressive" and "a much simpler, easier to understand tablet" than the similarly sized BlackBerry PlayBook from RIM. He also noted that it’s "definitely a media-consumption tablet, not a general purpose productivity tablet like the Apple iPad or some of the larger Android devices."
Amazon has not confirmed the rumors of a larger tablet.