The latest whispers about new Kindles from Amazon.com are coming from CNET, which is reporting that the Seattle company will launch a new, higher-resolution version of the Kindle Fire on July 31.
Also planned are new Kindles with black-and-white displays and built-in lights, to compete with Barnes & Noble’s new Nook with “GlowLight.”
That’s according to “a credible source” cited by CNET, which was unable to confirm the tidbits.
I spoke to an Amazon.com Kindle executive a few weeks ago. While he wouldn’t say anything about new hardware, he said the company has been continuously upgrading the Fire software since its launch — to the point that it’s basically a new device inside the same shell.
Still, Amazon has to freshen the hardware line eventually.
Scuttlebutt about new Kindle comes amid expectations that Google will release a Nexus-branded tablet made by Asus this week. Gizmodo reported that it will have the same screen size and base price as the Fire — 7-inches and $199.
Whether the rumors are true or not, there’s clearly a scramble to line up back-to-school options in the lower end of the tablet market, ahead of Microsoft’s debut in the upper end.