Amazon Kindle Fire price may drop to $149

It can be safely said that the only competition faced by Apple’s iPad is the 7-inch tablet from Amazon, the Kindle Fire. With the brand set to refresh their lineup by the third quarter of the year, a report by Digitimes states that according to sources the budget friendly tablet will receive a price cut to usher in their new range of tablets.

May become a lot cheaper

Sources have informed Digitimes that Amazon is planning on launching a new range of e-book readers and a 7-inch tablet by the beginning of the third quarter. If this report pans out to be true then we could see the brand launch a tablet as early as July. While launching the new tablet, the brand will keep their hugely popular Kindle Fire tablet as part of their existing line up and in the process adopt the strategy used by Apple when ushering a new product by keeping their existing product but at a lower cost.

The website states, “The sources expect Amazon to release a new 7-inch tablet PC with a screen resolution of 1280 by 800 and a price of US$199, in the third quarter, targeting the higher-end segment, while releasing another 7-inch model with similar specifications as the existing Kindle Fire, featuring a screen resolution of 1024 by 600 and a price of US$149. This model will be mainly pushed into the entry-level segment to expand the company's market share, noted the sources.”

There have been rumours floating around claiming that in order to make a huge impact in the tablet market; the brand will also launch a tablet with a larger screen. Commenting on this, the website states, “In addition to 7-inch tablet PCs, Amazon is also said planning 8.9-inch and 10.1-inch models; however, the latest information shows that the company has already halted the development of the 8.9-inch model with the 10.1-inch set to be released in the fourth quarter of 2012 or the first quarter of 2013.”

Towards the end of 2011, Apple had lost a sizeable share of their tablet market to Amazon but the brand quickly regained it in the first quarter of 2012. There have also been rumours that Apple would launch a smaller iPad to directly compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire as well as the yet unannounced 7-inch Google Nexus tablet that will be manufactured by ASUS.

Let us know your thoughts on the possible price drop of the Kindle Fire and will you purchase it when the cost is reduced or will you hold out for offerings from Google or Apple?