Yesterday I posted about how the Kindle teams used the RIM PlayBook to get a color e-reader product out the door (gdgt.com/discuss/the-amazon-tablet-will-look-like-…). I stopped short of saying they’re rushing it out the door, but by all accounts I’ve heard that it was indeed delayed. (It doesn’t seem like much of a secret now that Amazon seems to have been trying to get a Kindle tablet out a little earlier this year.)
Well, this delay to get the "stopgap" Kindle tablet out in time for the holiday season this year may have pretty serious consequences for early adopters and holiday shoppers: my sources tell me the second-gen Kindle tablet (or Kindle Fire, as it’s now been dubbed) will be out in Q1 of 2012 — yes, that soon. That was always the plan, but the delays of the v1 product have messed up Amazon’s release cycle.
And what’s worse, the second tablet — which Amazon didn’t just take more or less off the shelf from ODM manufacturer Quanta — seems to be the device Amazon really believes in.
Granted, in the hardware world there are often delays; timelines shift and cascade, strategies change, and launches get rejiggered all the time — so this true 2nd-gen Kindle tablet may be pushed back, too. One can rarely say with certainty that a product will get out on schedule. But if all goes according to plan, it looks like you’ll be seeing the second Kindle tablet not too long after you take the plastic off your first. If it was my money, I’d hold out a bit.
via gdgt – Oh, one more thing about the Amazon tablet: the second, better version is coming very soon. I think I’ll hold off on Gen1 of the Kindle Tablet, if Gen2 is going to be coming out that soon.