Amazon is phasing out Fire Tablets because they weren’t ‘giving customers what they were asking for’
In an interview with Bloomberg, Amazon's head of consumer electronics, Panos Panay, confirmed the company would phase out the Fire brand in favor of Alexa Tablets. The new lineup runs proper Android, instead of the custom Fire OS, and has full access to the Play Store, which wasn't available on Fire tablets. To make matters […]
Amazon is phasing out its Fire tablet line in favor of a new lineup of Alexa Tablets. According to Panos Panay, Amazon's head of consumer electronics, the Fire tablet line "wasn't giving customers what they were asking for." The new tablets will run on proper Android and have full access to the Google Play Store, which was not available on Fire tablets.
The new Alexa Tablets will come in three sizes: 8-inch, 11-inch, and 12-inch models, with aluminum bodies and upgraded displays. They will feature built-in Alexa integration and improved speed and performance. The tablets will also have access to popular apps such as YouTube, Netflix, Gmail, and Google Docs directly from the Google Play Store.
Preorders for the new Alexa Tablets opened on October 8, with shipping scheduled to begin on October 14. The starting price for the Alexa Tablet 8 is $229.99. The new tablets are positioned to compete with Apple's iPad lineup, with The Verge and 9to5Google noting that the designs of the new tablets resemble iPad knock-offs.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Verge, 9to5Google, AppleInsider, CNBC, CNBC Technology — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
