Rumor: Kindle Fire 2 shipping in summer

 

Based on the usual rumbling in the consumer electronics manufacturing business, it is believed that Amazon is gearing to release the second edition of its tablet in summer, this year. Amazon entered the tablet PC market relatively late; however, it has since been able to gain a respectable share of the market, thanks mostly to its pricing.

The Kindle Fire was one of the first, and it still is, among the few tablets that are selling for under $200, without giving the impression of cheap. However, the Kindle did skimp on some standard tablet PC features such as SD card slot, built-in camera, and USB and HDMI connectivity. It is rumored that Amazon will be engaging Foxconn to build the Kindle Fire 2, in favor of Quanta, who had been commissioned to build the current Kindle Fire model. If this is true, then it would be a fair indication that Amazon may be looking to ramping up production numbers as well as adding features to better align it with the prevalent industry standard.

 

According to a recent research by iSuppli, Amazon came second place in overall tablet sales in the fourth quarter of 2011, with a 14 percent share of the global tablet market, second only to Apple's iPad line. Apple shipped 40.5 million iPads to command a 62 percent share of the tablet market in 2011, down from 87 percent in 2010. Samsung's Galaxy Tab line accounted for 6.1 million units, or 9.4 percent of the 2011 market.
Amazon managed to ship twice as many units as its online competitor Barnes & Noble in Q4 2011, to take third place in overall shipments for the year.

Source: Hot Hardware