Stefan Mileschin

Amazon is expected to release a replacement for its Kindle Fire tablet today.

The Fire has done very well in the US and established Amazon as a pretty important player in the tablet market. It has not released the tablet in the EU because it lacks the ability to run the right content in civilised countries for people with opposible thumbs.

According to ZDNet, Amazon is expected to announce at least one new version of its 7-inch Kindle Fire. It is expected that a larger tablet may also be unveiled, along with an update of the company's popular Kindle.

Amazon is happy not to make much money on selling tablets and e-readers because it wants to get the devices into as many hands as possible. It then makes a killing selling digital content, such as e-books, video, games, apps and music, to a more connected and engaged customer base.

That model now has a bit of a fight on its hands. Since the Fire was released Google started selling its 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet for $199 with better specifications, while Barnes & Noble cut the price of one of its Nook tablets to $179. Microsoft Surface tablet is tipped to be priced at $199.

Smart money is on the new Fire to look a lot like the Nexus 7 for the same $199 price.

One suggestion is that Amazon may cut the price of the new Kindle Fire further by offering an ad-supported version. The cheapest Kindle costs $79 with ads, while the same version without ads is $109.

http://news.techeye.net/hardware/ama...w-tablet-today