New Kindle Fires

Despite significant build-up talk about a new smartphone or set-top box, Jeff Bezos instead tells that Amazon is going to stay focused on the tablet space. The whole event seemed a little disappointing in hindsight, but the new lineup of ebook readers and tablets is solid all the same. Highlights are a cheaper Kindle Touch ($69), the Kindle Fire HD in 7" ($199) and 8.9" ($299), and -- perhaps the most impressive -- new Kindle Paperwhites ($129 without 3G, $179 with 3G). Amazon highlights a number of software features -- parental controls, self-publishing, text and audiobook integration over multiple devices -- that sweeten the deal, but otherwise mostly kept it basic. Hardware improvements focus almost exclusively on improved display. Most importantly, Amazon kept prices low and went even lower, clearly leveraging their tablet devices as a way to get more users on their content ecosystem.