Kindle Fire HD—latest generation of the world’s best-selling 7”
tablet—with a stunning customized HD display, the fastest Wi-Fi,
exclusive Dolby audio, powerful processor and graphics engine, 11 hours
of battery life, and 16 GB of storage—all backed by the best content
ecosystem, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best
customer service—now available on Amazon.co.jp for only ¥15,800
Kindle Fire also available with a faster processor, twice the memory,
and longer battery life than the previous generation Kindle Fire, at a
breakthrough price—only ¥12,800, the lowest price of any full-featured
tablet
Both Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire offer instant access to Amazon’s
vast selection of over 22 million books, manga, apps, games and songs,
plus web browsing, email and more
TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 24, 2012--
(NASDAQ:AMZN)—Today, Amazon.co.jp is excited to announce that the
all-new Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD are coming to Japan, giving
Japanese customers access to Amazon’s vast selection of over 22 million
books, manga, apps, games and songs, plus web browsing, email and more.
Kindle Fire for ¥12,800 and Kindle Fire HD for ¥15,800 are available for
pre-order today and will begin shipping December 19. Kindle Fire HD is
already the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon.
Kindle Fire HD now available in Japan (Photo: Business Wire)
Kindle Fire HD is the latest generation of the world’s best-selling 7”
tablet. Features include:
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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.
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Fastest Wi-Fi of any tablet—dual antenna, dual-band, and MIMO—40%
faster downloads, compared to the next fastest tablet.
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High-performance processor and graphics engine for snappy and smooth
performance.
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Exceptional battery life—over 11 hours.
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Front-facing HD camera with customized Skype application for video
calling from anywhere in the world.
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Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio—the standard in
high-end audio—available for the first time on a tablet.
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16 GB or 32 GB of local storage, enough to accommodate the larger file
sizes of HD content.
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Amazon’s vast content ecosystem—over 22 million books, manga, apps,
games and songs.
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Best cross-platform interoperability, with Amazon apps available on
the largest number of devices and platforms so customers can access
content anytime, anywhere.
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Amazon.co.jp’s top-rated, world-class customer service. Whenever
customers shop on Amazon.co.jp, buy a Kindle, or buy Kindle content,
they know that they are also getting Amazon’s world-class customer
service. Customers have been shopping on Amazon.co.jp for 12 years,
and they continue to do so because of the unparalleled, end-to-end
customer experience.
Amazon.co.jp is also introducing an all-new upgraded version of the
best-selling standard definition Kindle Fire with a faster processor,
twice the memory and longer battery life than the original Kindle
Fire—all for an even lower breakthrough price—only ¥12,800. Meet the
all-new Kindle Fire family at www.amazon.co.jp/kindlefirehd.
“Kindle Fire HD is already the #1 best-selling item in the world for
Amazon, and we’re thrilled to make it available for the first time in
Japan. It features a stunning customized HD display, the fastest Wi-Fi,
exclusive Dolby audio, powerful processor and graphics engine, 16 or 32
GB of storage and 11 hours of battery life,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
Founder and CEO. “Not only does Kindle Fire HD feature the most advanced
hardware, it’s also a service. When combined with our unmatched content
ecosystem, unmatched cross-platform interoperability, and
standard-setting customer service, we hope people will agree that Kindle
Fire HD is the best 7” tablet available anywhere, at any price.”
World-Class Hardware
Stunning Customized HD Display
The Kindle Fire HD features a stunning HD display with 1280x800
resolution that delivers deep, detailed contrast and rich, natural
color. Kindle Fire HD starts with excellent resolution, but that is only
the beginning—Amazon also added customized features that reduce glare
and improve color saturation at any viewing angle. Most tablet displays
are made up of two pieces of glass—an LCD on the bottom and a touch
sensor on the top, separated by an air gap. This air gap allows light to
come through the touch sensor and reflect off the LCD, which causes
added glare for the user. Kindle Fire HD solves this air gap problem by
laminating the touch sensor and the LCD together into a single layer of
glass, creating a display that’s easy to view even in overhead light,
and reducing glare by 25% relative to iPad 3. Like many tablets, Kindle
Fire HD uses in-plane switching (IPS) to improve color reproduction.
However, displays that only use IPS still appear washed out at various
angles, such as when laid sideways in bed, flat on a table, or propped
up in a case. Kindle Fire HD features an Advanced True Wide polarizing
filter that is applied directly to the LCD panel. This results in a
display that shows the same deep contrast and rich, detailed color from
any angle.
High-End Laptop-Quality Wi-Fi
HD content has much larger file sizes than standard definition content.
Files of this size require the very latest in Wi-Fi technology to
download HD content quickly and reliably—anything else results in
buffering, slow downloads and dropped connections. Many Wi-Fi enabled
devices only use the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency. This frequency is
crowded since it is used by everything from other tablets to microwave
ovens, baby monitors, Bluetooth devices, not to mention the neighbors’
Wi-Fi networks. Kindle Fire HD circumvents this congestion with
state-of-the-art dual-band Wi-Fi. Kindle Fire HD can switch
automatically between the 2.4 GHz network and the newer, less crowded 5
GHz network, resulting in better range and less interference. In
addition, dual antennas and Multiple In/Multiple Out (MIMO) allow for
higher bandwidth and longer range. The new Kindle Fire HD is the first
tablet to market with all three of these latest generation Wi-Fi
technologies—dual-band support, dual antennas, and MIMO. This is the
first time this state-of-the-art Wi-Fi technology has been offered in a
tablet, resulting in 40% faster throughput compared to iPad 3.
Powerful World-Class Processor—Snappy and Smooth
An HD display and HD content must be driven by a powerful processor and
optimized software. Kindle Fire HD features a world-class processor and
the new Imagination Technologies graphics engine for lightning-fast HD
graphics and excellent fluidity. 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—The New Standard for
Tablet Audio
Customers shouldn’t need to wear headphones to get excellent sound from
their tablet. Kindle Fire HD solves this by combining dual stereo
speakers with the exclusive Dolby Digital Plus audio engine—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, optimizes the audio profile automatically based on what a
customer is doing. All of these pieces combine to create an exceptional
audio experience that results in clearer, crisper and balanced sound
quality.
11 Hours of Battery Life
Kindle Fire HD is optimized to deliver high performance without
sacrificing battery life, delivering over 11 hours’ worth of battery
life.
Thin and Light
Even with a customized display, a powerful processor, extra speakers and
dual-band/dual-antenna Wi-Fi, the new Kindle Fire HD is extremely light
and thin. In fact, Kindle Fire HD weighs only 395 grams and is just 10.3
mm thick. Kindle Fire HD is small enough to take everywhere and light
enough to hold easily and comfortably in one hand.
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.
HDMI out makes it easy for customers to connect the Kindle Fire HD to
their big-screen TV to enjoy their favorite HD photos.
Stay in Touch with Front-Facing HD Camera
The new 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.
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 the
lightest and thinnest form of protection. The integrated magnetic clasp
ensures the cover remains securely closed while in a backpack, handbag,
or briefcase. The cover wakes Kindle Fire HD automatically upon opening
and puts it to sleep when closed, making it easy for the customer to
dive right back into whatever content they’re enjoying.
Amazon’s Vast Content Ecosystem, the Best Cross-Platform
Interoperability and World-Class Customer Service
All the Content—Over 22 million Books, Apps, Games, Songs and Manga
Kindle Fire offers customers a vast selection of digital content.
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The new Japanese Kindle Store, which will launch on October 25,
offering customers the largest selection of digital best sellers in
Japan, with the most titles from this week’s Oricon top 100 books, top
50 bunko, and top 100 manga lists and a total of over 50,000
Japanese-language Kindle books including over 10,000 free Japanese
titles and a broad selection of works from a wide range of leading
Japanese authors and publishers. In total, the store offers over 1.4
million titles, including the largest selection of best sellers in
English and other languages.
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For fans of manga, Kindle delivers the best experience, with the
largest number of manga best sellers and over 15,000 manga titles
overall. With the new exclusive Kindle Panel View experience for
manga, finely-tuned image processing algorithms render each image
beautifully while keeping page turns responsive. Rotating to landscape
presents a double-page spread to showcase the story’s largest
sequences. A user can read Manga just like a book, or select Kindle
Panel View to zoom in and enjoy the details of each page.
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Instant access to the most popular apps and games, including TSUTAYA
TV, Yahoo!Headline, Hello Kitty Schedule, Mushroom Garden, Japanese
Food 3000 Recipes From Three Minutes Cooking, DOCOMO-ZEMI 100 English
Naruhodo phrases by docomo/ALC, The Nikkei Online Edition, FINAL
FANTASY III and Puzzle & Dragons.
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Millions of songs from hundreds of thousands of artists. Customers can
stream their music from the cloud and download albums, songs and
playlists for offline listening.
Arrives Pre-Registered
Kindle Fire comes automatically pre-registered so customers can
immediately start enjoying their digital content purchased from Amazon
or shop for new content immediately.
Top-Rated, World-Class Customer Service
Whenever customers shop on Amazon.co.jp, purchase a Kindle Fire or
Kindle Fire HD, or buy Kindle content, they know that they are also
getting Amazon’s world-class customer service.
Best Cross-Platform Interoperability with “Buy Once, Enjoy Everywhere”
With apps available on the largest number of devices and platforms,
Kindle makes it easier than ever to access content anytime, anywhere.
With the new Kindle reading apps launching October 25, customers can
read and sync their Kindle books across iPad, iPhone, and Android phones
and tablets.
All New Features
Ideal for Gaming
In addition to hardware that’s perfect for gaming, such as stunning
customized HD displays, fast Wi-Fi and large on-device storage, the
Kindle Fire HD also offers HD Games, gyroscope and accelerometer for
full tilt and turn controls, as well as social gaming features including
group leaderboards and achievements.
Whispersync for Games
One of the biggest frustrations of mobile gaming is that when customers
switch devices or delete and re-install the game on the same device,
they have to start a level over or go back to the beginning of the game.
To solve this problem, Amazon extended its Whispersync technology to
gaming with Whispersync for Games. Whispersync for Games syncs a
customer’s place in the game and saves unlocked levels, so even if they
get a new device, the progress is backed up in the cloud.
Cloud-Accelerated Silk Browser
The new Kindle Fire family uses a new version of Amazon Silk with the
unique “split browser” architecture that leverages the computing speed
and power of Amazon Web Services to deliver content faster. The new
Amazon Silk browser has a completely re-engineered core Webkit engine
that contributes to faster page loads. Customers can experience
full-screen browsing, reading view, and improved browsing with
most-visited, trending and recommended sites all available from a single
screen.
All New Productivity Features
The new Kindle Fire family features world-class Microsoft Exchange
integration, with fine-tuned performance on many of the most critical
e-mail functions. For example, typical Exchange accounts sync with the
oldest emails first, ending with the most recent emails—Kindle Fire,
however, syncs with newer emails first, then with older emails instead,
giving customers faster 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 e-mail client offers support for the world’s most popular email
providers—including Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, Hotmail and more.
Customers can email spreadsheets, PDFs, Word docs and other documents
directly to their Kindle Fire, or upload documents from their PC or Mac
using Amazon Cloud Drive. For customers who depend on corporate access
on the go, they can connect to a VPN for secure enterprise access using
one of a variety of apps from the Amazon Appstore.
Photos Brought to Life
Customers’ favorite 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 Amazon Cloud
Drive, they never have to worry about losing their favorite pictures.
New Latest Generation Kindle Fire—Only ¥12,800
The new Kindle Fire, also available for pre-order starting today, comes
with all the content, seamless integration with the Amazon Cloud,
Whispersync, and a brilliant 7” touchscreen, as well as with a faster
processor for 40% faster performance, twice the memory and longer
battery life than the original, first-generation Kindle Fire.
Pricing and Availability
The all-new Kindle Fire HD with a stunning HD display, the fastest
Wi-Fi, exclusive HD audio with two stereo speakers and Dolby Digital
Plus, 16 or 32 GB of storage and powerful world-class processor—all
backed by Amazon’s vast content ecosystem, the best cross-platform
interoperability and the best customer service is ¥15,800. Kindle Fire
HD is available for pre-order starting today at www.amazon.co.jp/kindlefirehd
and ships on December 19.
The new, latest generation Kindle Fire with a faster processor for 40%
faster performance, twice the memory and all the new features is only
¥12,800, and is available for pre-order starting today at www.amazon.co.jp/kindlefire
and ships on December 19.
Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD will be available at a variety of
retailers in addition to Amazon.co.jp, including: K’s Holdings, Bic
Camera, Joshin Denki, and Kitamura.
For high-resolution images and video of the all-new Kindle Fire family,
visit www.amazon.com/pr/kindle.
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 the most-advanced e-reader ever
constructed 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 new latest generation
Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, now features new, improved
fonts and faster page turns. Kindle Fire HD features a stunning custom
high-definition display, exclusive Dolby audio with dual stereo
speakers, high-end, laptop-grade Wi-Fi with dual-band support and
dual-antennas/MIMO for 40% faster throughput than other tablets, 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
large-screen Kindle Fire HD is also available with 4G wireless, and
comes with a groundbreaking $49.99 introductory 4G LTE data package. 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,
and www.amazon.es.
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 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.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50452270&lang=en
Source: Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
www.amazon.com/pr
