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Details about Amazon’s expected upcoming Kindle Fire tablet have been leaking like a wiki as deals are closed and the Wednesday morning announcement draws nearer.
The device is thought to kind of straddle a line between the iPad and the Nook Color, coming in possibly at an Apple-undercutting $250 (or so we have read) and performing a range of tasks the Kindle is unable to do, or at least do smoothly. And some of the reports trickling in indicate the Kindle Fire will hit market ready to compete hard with the App Store when it comes to digital versions of print publications.
According to AllThingsD, Hearst, Condé Nast and Meredith have all inked deals with Amazon for Kindle Fire content, and the publishers also have reportedly begun tailoring some content to fit the 7″ screen on the yet-to-be-confirmed device. But among major print publishers- most of whom sell print mags through the site– there is one big holdout, according to sources that spoke to the tech blog:
The notable standout, for now, is Time Warner’s giant Time Inc., which has yet to come to terms with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. A person familiar with negotiations suggests that a deal won’t get done in the next two days, either — “hopefully by the end of the year” was the guidance I got today.
One source, unnamed by AllThingsD, had this to say about publisher enthusiasm for the Kindle tablet:
“You’ve got beauty and design with Apple, which we love,” says a publisher who has an Amazon deal. “But with Amazon you have marketing, and ease of use. We’re very optimistic.”
And if the smaller device doesn’t resonate as hard as the iPad has, a larger version of Amazon’s tablet is believed to be in the works for a release in coming months.
