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Amazon has announced the US release of three new Kindle Fire Tablets. Meanwhile Barnes & Noble has further slashed the UK price of its backlit e-reader to £49.
Amazon has refreshed its Kindle Fire range with three new updated versions of the tablet. The new Kindle Fire HD has a 1280×800 resolution 7in screen with 216 pixels per inch, costs $139 and ships on 2nd October. The Kindle Fire HDX 7in has an even higher resolution display at 323 pixels per inch screen and a Snapdragon 800 processor, which is three times the processing power of the previous generation Kindle Fire, costs $229 and ships on 18th October. The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in has a 339 ppi resolution and costs $379, shipping on 7th November.
Amazon has also revealed that the tablets will have a new operating system, the latest Kindle Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito.” Goodreads will be available exclusively to Kindle customers on the Kindle tablets as part of the update. The tablets will also have limited offer deals displaying on the lock screens.
No information has yet been released on the UK availability of the new tablets.
Meanwhile Barnes & Noble’s has also revealed today that it is discounting its Nook Simple Touch Glowlight again, down to £49 from £69, making it the only backlit e-reader in the UK under £50, the company claims.
B&N initially reduced the product from £109 to £69 in April, at the same time as reducing its Simple Touch e-reader from £69 to £29.
The American bookselling company has made the latest price reduction in the run-up to the Christmas season, only three weeks after slashing the price of its tablet range with the cheapest being reduced to just £79.
The further discounts follow the company’s revelation in a recent investors call that it had made too many tablets after they “overestimated the demand for the products”, which has led to the book chain's recent discount programme.
Jim Hilt, Barnes & Noble Sàrl m.d., said: “No other e-reader in the UK anywhere near this price has an integrated light, sits comfortably and lightly in the hand and has a battery that will last up to two months. It’s an unbeatable value for one of our best-loved and most highly acclaimed products, making now the perfect time to choose an e-reader for yourself or for your favourite reader as an early Christmas present.”