SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ:AMZN)—Today Amazon announced that Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9” are now available to customers in over 170 countries and territories around the world for pre-order through Amazon.com, giving customers access to millions of apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines, including more than 300,000 books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store.
Designed for entertainment, Kindle Fire HD is perfect for web browsing, apps, games and books. Features include:
- Stunning customized HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter and customized laminated touch sensor for 25% less glare with rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle; ideal for movies, apps, and gaming.
- Custom Dolby audio and dual stereo speakers for crisp, rich sound.
- The most popular apps and games.
- Ultra-fast web browsing and streaming with built-in dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi.
- Front-facing HD camera for taking photos or making video calls.
- Exceptional battery life—Kindle Fire HD gets over 10 hours of battery life.
- Easy-to-use e-mail, calendar, and contacts for work or home, including Gmail, Hotmail, Exchange, and more.
- Amazon-exclusive features like, Whispersync for Voice and Whispersync for Games.
- “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” with the free Kindle app available on the largest number of platforms so customers can use their Kindle books on any of their devices.
- Amazon’s top-rated, world-class customer service.
“Kindle Fire HD is the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon since its launch, and we’re thrilled to make it available to even more customers around the globe today,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Not only does Kindle Fire feature advanced hardware, it’s also a service. When combined with our content ecosystem, great email and browsing and top-rated customer service, we hope people around the world will agree that Kindle Fire HD is the best tablet for an incredible price.”
Kindle Fire is a Service
Kindle Fire is more than just great hardware—it’s a service. When a customer orders a Kindle Fire, it arrives pre-registered to their Amazon account and greets them by name. All of the customer’s Kindle content is there waiting for them to download and start enjoying—no long set-up process, and no syncing with a cable. Kindle Fire also comes with instant access to Amazon’s digital content right from the device, including all of the features customers love about shopping on Amazon—customer reviews, one-click purchasing and more. Whenever customers shop on Amazon, or buy a Kindle they know that they are also getting Amazon’s world-class customer service. Customers have been shopping on Amazon for over 15 years, and they continue to do so because of the unparalleled, end-to-end customer experience.
Arrives Pre-Registered
Kindle Fire HD comes automatically pre-registered so customers can immediately start enjoying their digital content purchased from Amazon or shop for new content.
Connect with Bluetooth and HDMI
Kindle Fire HD supports Bluetooth, enabling customers to connect their wireless Bluetooth headphones or Bluetooth speakers to listen to songs or audiobooks. With Bluetooth connectivity, customers can also easily connect to a wide range of Bluetooth-enabled keyboards. HDMI out makes it easy for customers to connect Kindle Fire HD to their big-screen TV to enjoy their favorite videos and photos.
Stunning Custom HD Display
The 8.9” display on Kindle Fire HD features an incredible 254 pixels per inch with a resolution of 1920x1200, meaning that pixels are indistinguishable to the human eye. The 7” Kindle Fire HD features a stunning HD display with 1280x800 resolution that delivers deep, detailed contrast and rich, natural color. Kindle Fire HD a laminated touch sensor to reduce glare and make the display easy to view even in overhead light, and an Advanced True Wide polarizing filter that results in a display that shows the same deep contrast and rich, detailed color from any angle.
High-End Laptop-Quality Wi-Fi—Fast Downloads and High-Speed Streaming
Kindle Fire HD comes with dual-band Wi-Fi and can automatically switch between the 2.4 GHz network and the less crowded 5 GHz network, resulting in better range and less interference.
Stay in Touch with Front-Facing HD Camera
Kindle Fire HD features a front-facing HD camera. Skype created a customized app tailored for Kindle Fire HD that is ready to use out of the box for free HD video calls at home and abroad. Kindle Fire HD makes it easy for the over 250 million customers already using Skype to get in touch with friends and family.
Email and Calendar
The Kindle Fire family features world-class Microsoft Exchange integration, with fine-tuned performance on many of the most critical email functions. For example, typical Exchange accounts sync with the oldest emails first, ending with the most recent emails—Kindle Fire instead syncs with newer emails first, then with older emails, getting customers access to the most recent emails they are looking for. Kindle Fire also features a new calendar app, making it easy for customers to stay connected and keep track of their schedules. The new email client offers support for the world’s most popular email providers—including Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, Hotmail and more.
Photos Brought to Life
Photos come alive in stunning high-resolution on Kindle Fire HD. Fire’s mosaic view arranges personal photos beautifully, and customers will be delighted to see their best shots on their TV with HDMI out. Kindle Fire lets customers easily import their photos from Facebook and because their photos are securely stored in the Amazon cloud, they never have to worry about losing their favorite pictures.
Millions of Apps, Games, Books, Audiobooks and Magazines
Kindle Fire provides customers an incredibly large selection of digital content, including thousands of exclusives:
- Instant access to the most popular apps and games, including Where’s My Perry?, Pinterest, NBA JAM, and Asphalt 7—each one optimized for Kindle Fire HD.
- Millions of books, including over 300,000 titles that are exclusive to the Kindle Store. Over 650,000 books are priced at $4.99 or less; over 1.2 million are $9.99 or less. Hundreds of magazines and newspapers—including Vogue, Esquire, National Geographic and Better Homes and Gardens—with glossy full-color layouts, HD photography, and beautifully detailed illustrations.
- Over 100,000 professionally-narrated audiobook titles available, with free samples to listen to before buying.
16 or 32 GB of On-Device Storage, Plus Free Cloud Storage for Amazon Content
Kindle Fire HD is available with 16 GB or 32 GB of on-device storage. This large on-device storage capacity is in addition to the free storage Amazon provides for Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud. Amazon digital content is automatically backed up for free in the Amazon Cloud’s Worry-Free Archive where it’s available anytime.
Powerful World-Class Processor—Snappy and Smooth
An HD display and HD content must be driven by a powerful processor and optimized software. The Kindle Fire HD family features world-class processors and an Imagination Technologies graphics engine for lightning-fast HD graphics and excellent fluidity. The 8.9” Kindle Fire HD is powered by the latest generation OMAP4 4470 processor and Imagination SGX544 graphics engine capable of over 12 billion floating point operations per second, and both Kindle Fire HD 7” and 8.9” come with higher memory bandwidth than Tegra 3. Combining the latest generation processors with significant customization of the Kindle Fire software by Amazon engineers results in a snappy and smooth experience for the user.
Dual Stereo Speakers and Exclusive Dolby Audio
Kindle Fire HD combines dual stereo speakers with the Dolby Digital Plus audio platform—the standard in high-performance audio—to offer a world-class audio experience. Dolby’s audio suite for Kindle Fire HD includes technology used to adjust volume and deliver easy-to-understand dialogue, and also optimizes for headphones versus speakers. All of these pieces combine to create an exceptional audio experience that results in clear, crisp and balanced sound quality.
10 Hours of Battery Life
Kindle Fire HD is optimized to deliver high performance without sacrificing battery life, delivering over 10 hours of battery life.
Thin and Light
Even with a custom display, a powerful processor, extra speakers and dual-band/dual-antenna Wi-Fi, Kindle Fire HD 8.9” weighs only 20 ounces and is just 8.8 mm thin.
Beautiful Leather Covers
Covers for Kindle Fire HD feature a premium textured leather exterior in a variety of colors and a subtle woven nylon interior to provide our lightest and thinnest form of protection. The integrated magnetic clasp ensures the cover remains securely closed while in a backpack, purse, or briefcase. The cover automatically wakes Kindle Fire HD upon opening and puts it to sleep when closed, making it easy to dive right back into whatever content a customer is enjoying.
Customers can discover full details and order Kindle Fire HD at www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd.
Pricing and Availability
Kindle Fire HD 8.9” is available for preorder starting today for just $284 at www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd.
Kindle Fire HD 7” is available for preorder starting today for just $214 at www.amazon.com/kindlefirehd.
Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9” will be available for order and ship June 13 to customers in Ireland and Gibraltar from www.amazon.co.uk; for customers in Austria and Luxembourg from www.amazon.de; and for customers in Monaco from www.amazon.fr.
Kindle Fire HD is also available at various retailers around the world. Customers can discover stores and location at www.amazon.com/KindleRetailers.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is our most-advanced e-reader with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, extra-long battery life, and a thin and light design. The latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, features improved fonts and faster page turns. Kindle Fire HD features a stunning custom high-definition display, Dolby audio with dual stereo speakers, high-end, laptop-grade Wi-Fi with dual-band support, dual-antennas and MIMO for faster streaming and downloads, enough storage for HD content, and the latest generation processor and graphics engine—and it is available in two display sizes—7” and 8.9”.The all-new Kindle Fire features a 20% faster processor, 40% faster performance, twice the memory, and longer battery life.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, www.amazon.es and www.amazon.com.br. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management’s expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment and data center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
