What a bomb! Amazon disclosed their new autumn offering in the shape of three new Kindle readers and a Kindle tablet. While not unexpected, some points came with a surprise – at least for me.

Readers

These devices have some very compelling features, and the e-ink display is not the least among those. It is, frankly, quite fantastic, looking very much like any printed paper in bright sunlight or in your bed. The relatively low resolution (800 x 600) and definition (167 dpi) give better results than you can expect from a LCD screen with the same specifications.

I could also add a word about the battery life, measured in weeks if not months. The unit speaks for itself.

A Kindle feels like a book: printed, light, small, forever lasting… I just miss the smell, but Firmenich can certainly help.

The Kindles all come Wi-Fi enabled. The Kindle Touch loses the buttons of the smaller brother and gains a touchscreen. The Kindle Touch 3G offers the usual 3G link already found on previous models.

Where is the bomb?

Pricing.

The cheapest Kindle costs $79, a price point low enough for impulsive purchases. Sure it comes with ads and buttons. But it also comes with the whole Amazon books and magazines offering, and ecosystem.

The most interesting alternative, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, starts at $139, a $60 hefty difference. The very least I can say is that Amazon is putting a lot of pressure on the competitors.

Tablet

The Kindle Fire… this is a very interesting new product. 7” color LCD display, perfect for standard definition movies (SD, 576p, 16:9) and well integrated in the whole Amazon ecosystem: cloud services, books of course, movies, music, and even Android applications.

Where is the bomb?

The content.

Amazon itself says: “Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more […]”. The content. The entire Amazon content.

Amazon didn’t make the same mistake as the other Apple’s competitors: the Fire is the first tablet on the market not in direct competition with the iPad. It’s a different product, much more a Kindle on steroids than a low end iPad. The price reflects that difference: $199. Not really a no-brainer purchase, but close enough. Also, Amazon never used the word tablet speaking about the Fire, only Kindle. Maybe I’m wrong on that one, but I don’t think so. It’s a Viewer, and Amazon sells it that way.

The current Android tablets aren’t selling well, pressured by the iPad healthy ecosystem. The Fire will put them on fire from below, with a very strong content-oriented ecosystem. Barnes & Noble Nook Color is the only real alternative to the Fire. Problem, it costs $50 more and the content offering is nothing like Amazon’s. Its strongest selling point remains, the Nook Color is easily hackable.

My bet is that the Fire will seriously hurt Android tablets, without impacting the iPad much.

Long term predictions

The e-ink Kindles are great for reading. They’ll sell very well for the year to come, or two.

The Kindle Fire’s future is harder to foresee. It’s a less capable reader than the e-ink Kindles (the display makes the difference), a less capable tablet (well, it’s not a tablet)… You get what you pay for. I cannot tell if a Viewer as it is today will live a long happy life. Amazon will most certainly update the Fire much more frequently than the other Kindles, and that evolution will be the key to success of the Fire product line.

I think Amazon did it right. After so many disillusions, it’s quite a surprise to see a company with a distinctive product and not another iPad clone. What a bomb!

Disclosure: I ordered a Kindle Touch Wi-Fi.