Google's new tablet in the form of Nexus 7 is an eye-catcher which seemingly possesses more advanced features than the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet.
The device makes its entry at a time when Apple iPad holds the top spot for the 9.7-inch version and Amazon Kindle Fire heads the 7-inch version.
The tablet from Google with a price tag of $199 is expected to attract consumers from all quarters as its price is similar to Amazon's tablet. Moreover, Nexus 7 will come with upgraded version of Android operating system known as Jelly Bean with many new functions. The Kindle Fire sports Amazon's own customized Android OS version 2.3 which is inferior to Jelly Bean OS.
However, Amazon is not expected to play waiting game to see how the Google Nexus 7 fares in the market as the retailer plans to introduce Amazon Kindle Fire 2 in the near future.
According to reports from China Times, Amazon has ordered 2 million units from Chinese manufacturer Quanta and Kindle Fire 2 will start shipping on August 7. Accroding to CNET the second generation Amazon Kindle will be announced on July 31. Meanwhile, Google has already informed the availabilty of Nexus 7, which will start shipping in mid July as well.
Other related rumours reveal that apart from 7-inch, Amazon is working on 8.9-inch and 10-inch models. And further revelation from China Times points out that Kindle Fire 2 will feature a metal frame with otherwise plastic body, with the display made by LG and touch panels by TPK.
BGR has reported that Amazon's new Kindle Fire 2 tablets will be thinner and more similar in appearance to the first-generation Apple iPad, but without any buttons on the front. Inclusion of microUSB ports and, possibly, HDMI-out jacks is reportedly expected to make its way to new tablets. However, the 10-inch version is expected to come with front-facing camera and a dual-core processor is on the cards too.
Meanwhile, DigiTimes has stated that the 7-inch tablet will sport a display with higher resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels compared to Kindle Fire's display of 600 x 1024 pixels. Google Nexus sports a 800 x 1280 pixels LED-backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display and the latest Apple iPad has 1536 x 2048 resolution display.
Amazon hopes to narrow the gap with 7-inch Google Nexus 7 and Apple iPad's 9.7-inch version by introducing their 10-inch version and improving specifications and gaming applications.
The new Amazon Kindle Fire 2 will be priced at $199 for the 7-inch version while there is no information on 10-inch version. With the introduction of new version of Kindle Fire, the original versions price is expected to be reduced to $149.
On the other hand, Bloomberg has confirmed about the reports on Apple iPad Mini. The mini version of iPad will have the same number of pixels like iPad 2. The 7.85" size screen may sport 163ppi, which will be lower than the 216ppi of the Nexus 7, but all apps written for the iPad 2 will work perfectly on it.
