It's perhaps the biggest launch for a tablet since the original iPad. Today, Amazon announced that its seven inch Kindle Fire product, first announced in late September, is now shipping to its pre-order customers, one day earlier than originally announced. People who pre-ordered the new Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G eReaders will see those products shipping to them on Tuesday, six days earlier than planned
While Amazon has yet to confirm specific numbers, analyst expect that the company has already received lots of pre-orders for the Kindle Fire and could end up selling millions of units of the device. The early reviews suggest that the tablet has achieved its goal of being a solid tablet device for the price point of $199, rather than a true competitor to the more expensive iPad from Apple.
Amazon announced last week that the Kindle Fire would also be sold in retail stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others but there's no word if those stores will begin selling Kindle Fire units today as well.
If the Kindle Fire does sell as well as expected, the era of a seven inch tablet that costs $400 or more may be over and we suspect that other tablet makers like Samsung, Motorola and others will have to either cut prices on their current tablet products or products new ones in order to compete with the Kindle Fire.
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