DigiTimes reports that Amazon is heavily considering an 8.9-inch follow-up to the 7-inchKindle Fire. According to unnamed sources the 8.9-inch Amazon tablet will be launched in the place of a 10.1-inch sized tablet. Purportedly Amazon LCD panel suppliers Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) and LG Display (LGD) ‘have begun to prepare production capacities for 8.9-inch displays’.
The Amazon Kindle Fire will launch in about eleven days and the tablet will don a 7-inch 1024×600 IPS LCD. The size and resolution of the Kindle Fire display isn’t going to satisfy everyone, I’m sure Amazon already knows this much. However is a larger display that’s only 8.9-inches going to please the size-matters crowd?
I think if Amazon can manage to bump up the display resolution to at least 1280×800 for the 8.9-inch tablet most of the bigger is better folks will be pleased. I think the 8.9-inch screen size will allow Amazon to keep prices down as well which is going to be important given the 7-inch Kindle Fire is $199. Consumers will expect a bigger brother to be more expensive, but anything over $300 won’t win Amazon any fans.
As of now we’ve only seen a few Android tablets released with an 8.9-inch touchscreen LCD in-toe. The LG Optimus Pad or T-Mobile G-Slate (U.S. name) was first, but it was later followed by the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. The LG Optimus Pad/G-Slate failed to gain any traction in the marketplace due to its high price tag with only a poor implementation of 3D as a unique feature over other Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets. At this time it’s still too early to tell if the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is doing well in the marketplace.
[digitimes]
