New Kindles have been announced.

In brief, they’re the Fire tablet, at $199, the Touch 3G at £139, the Touch at $99 and the basic Kindle at $89. The last three will all have advertisements as screensavers. There will be advertisement-free versions for a little extra.

The Fire is a tablet to rival the Nook Color, and since Barnes and Noble is about to announce a new generation of Nook Colors, the situation there will probably remain the same. If you want the details and the specs, they’re on the main pages at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
The UK is only getting the basic ad-free model at the moment, and this will cost £89, which is a big hike on the $79 US version, even if that is the all-in price.

They look good, and the range is pretty impressive. But the companies who will be really worried, IMO, is the Android tablet companies. HP recently inadvertently revealed the selling price point when they reduced the price of their now defunct tablet, but the others cost $300 and up.
The Ipad is probably safe, at the top end.

It’s the content that counts. The Fire tablet will come packed with Amazon goodness. It won’t be a fully functional Android tablet, but will have an Android base, probably 1.1, which is pretty much outdated by others, but as long as it does what it says, I don’t think many buyers will be bothered. Of course, it will be rooted the day after release, but that’s for the geeks. I recently had a lot of problems with my rooted Nook Color and decided to revert to stock. I’m pretty happy with it as it is. I bet the Fire users will like that. But it might be worth waiting, because there are rumours of a ten-inch model and an additional model later on with some improvements.

Will I be racing out to get one? Well, apart from the fact that I’m in the UK, and so only the basic model is available, not so much. I love my Kindle 3, and the screen looks to be the same one. The new model is lighter, but the one I have is light enough for me. They are keeping the current Kindle in the same range and renaming it the Kindle Keyboard, and I really like that keyboard, because it means I can make notes on the books I review.

But the price points mean that the reader is a game changer. This is now the era of the below-$100 ereader, and that will see lots of new entrants. The savings (free out of copyright books, free offers) will pay for the device. This is an almost disposable price, one where the content really does matter more than the device. Ereaders have matured, and are now easy to use and comfortable to read on. I wonder if the airlines will still make us switch off on take-off and landing?

I fully expect Barnes and Noble to follow suit, and so fulfill the usual market model of leader, second brand and, well, they are themselves generics. Sony and the other makers of readers that don’t have a considerable store or extra content will suffer, there’s no doubt about that.

I’m beginning to think that tablets are a bit  of a frill, and the new Amazon Fire price does reflect that. Recently my trusty netbook bit the dust, and I had the choice between buying a tablet or an ultra-light laptop for my travels. I picked the ultra light. It has a proper keyboard, it has Windows, I can tilt it to watch films on and read books, surfing the Web is no problem. It’s just more useful to me. If I’d bought a tablet, I’d have had to invest in a keyboard, case, etc. And be stuck with an Apple interface with my PC, which I didn’t like.

So what do you think? Will you be supplementing your paper library with a reader? Are you tempted?