Kindle Fire HD’s and HDX Make a Comeback! Terrific Choice for the Mid-Range Tablet Market

Some new developments this week have put Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HDX 7 on the map again despite the majority of media attention being focused on Amazon’s newly announced Fire smartphone.

To start off, TNW informs us that Oyster is now available for android operating systems and Kindle Fire Tablets. As TNW describes it, Oyster is “The Netflix of e-books.” Unlike Kindle’s own book store, Oyster is targeting dedicated readers by making all of its titles available for unlimited reading for a flat monthly rate of $9.95 per month. Though Amazon Prime members may be a little more difficult for Oyster to win over, the avid readers among them could certainly be tempted away from Amazon’s domination within the Kindle Fire, if for no other reason than Prime’s sometimes frustratingly sparse selection of free titles and limitation on the amount of free rentals for Prime members per month.

Moving right along in the world of all that is Kindle Fire, Amazon also announced that it is slashing its prices on its Kindle Fire HDX 7. According to Gadget Insiders, Amazon is dropping its price by $30.00 on its base model 16GB Wi-Fi only Kindle Fire HDX from $229.00 to a discounted $199.00. The 32 GB model has been reduced from its normal $279.00 price tag to $239.00, and finally, the 64GB model has been dropped from $309.00 to $269.00. This isn’t the first time Amazon has drastically reduced their prices on the Kindle Fire series to drive sales. As Inquisitr notes, Amazon successfully used the same approach with the Kindle Fire HD series.

The new Kindle Fire HDX boasts a 7 inch 1920 x 1200 screen, making it a much more robust evolution over previous models which were equipped with a 1280 x 800 display resolution. Better display resolution is by no means the only improvement that Amazon built into the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. The Fire HDX also sports much improved processing power. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor which clocks in at 2.2 GHz. According to Amazon, the Kindle Fire HDX’s new processor is 3 times faster than Amazon’s previous generation. The HDX’s operating system also got some revisions and a new name; Fire OS Mojito. Lastly, Amazon has built in a “mayday” button into the device which puts HDX users in touch with Amazon customer service representatives within an average time of 9.75 seconds! How’s that for fast?

The more cost effective pricing structure for consumers on Amazon’s Kindle Fire products is a great alternative for those not wishing to fork over a boat load of cash for the new Fire smartphone.

As mentioned by The Verge, though the Fire Smartphone boasts an absolutely impressive amount of new features and technology, the device will be available beginning on July 25 at a starting price of $199.00 with a two year contract through AT&T exclusively. ZDNet tells us that the Fire smartphone will cost a cool $650.00 for the 32GB version, and $750.00 for the 64 GB version if you opt not to purchase the two year contract. You do get one year of Amazon Prime included either way, worth a value of $99.00.

The Amazon Kindle Fire has always proven itself as a reliable and feature packed device for the mid-range price point. No doubt, an attractive alternative to more extravagantly priced alternatives.