In a somewhat bold confirmation issued amidst a lot of rumors, AllThingsD has revealed that sources close to Amazon are insisting that the Kindle Fire 2, the redesigned Kindle Fire tab, is going to be launched in Q3 of this year.
Kindle Fire 2 has been in the news for quite a long time now and almost all rumors have been pointing to the exact Q3 launch date that just seems to have been confirmed.
There are some specific changes pointed out.
To begin with, the ratio of the display is going to change. It’s no longer going to be a “lengthy” tab when you look at it in the portrait mode. The ratio, which was 1.71, may change to 1.60 as developers have been asked (purportedly) to design for a tab with a resolution of 1280x800px. That’s a bit different from the original Kindle Fire’s resolution of 1024x600px that yeilds the 1.71 ratio.
Besides this, the new Fire is rumored to have a thinner dimension and a crisper display thanks to the small boost to the resolution. As such, it’s not a huge change, but images and icons are purportedly going to be crisper.
Amongst other Amazon Kindle Fire 2 features, we find the much-needed camera and possibly the latest Android version (4.1 Jelly Bean). It’s however unconfirmed yet.
The Amazon Kindle Fire 2 release date, set for Q3 according to the source AllThingsD quotes, appears to be quite a strategic time for a release. Q4 has been repeatedly rumored to be the time when Apple’s iPad Mini (highly rumored device) is expected to be launched / announced. Further, the Nexus 7 gets the official release sometime during the fall too.
All of this makes for a very competitive time for the mini tabs.
