Amazon said Wednesday morning that it will have “several thousand” apps coming for the Kindle Fire’s launch next week.
The apps will include access to Netflix, a selling point that Barnes and Noble highlighted with its launch of the new Nook Tablet this week.
Other apps available through Amazon’s curated version of the Android market will include Facebook, Pandora (also a Nook partner), Rovio, PopCap, Zynga and Gameloft, all powerhouses for mobile consumption.
In a press release, Kindle vice president Dave Limp said that the new apps were “only the beginning -- we’re adding more apps and games every day across all categories.”
The Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet are set to compete head-on for consumers looking for cheaper tablets that focus on reading. At $199, the Kindle Fire has the price advantage, though the Nook has more memory. On the other hand, the Fire is aimed at being more of an all-in-one device for mobile media, providing access to Amazon’s extensive retail ecosystem.
A new report from ChangeWave Research, Boy Genius Report shared, has found that demand for the Kindle Fire slightly outstrips the demand the company measured for the iPad 2 ahead of its 2010 launch: Five percent of customer said they were “very likely” to buy the Fire, compared with 4 percent of folks who said the same about iPad 2. Analysts have said that the Fire is not likely to be a major threat to the iPad, because the Amazon tablet going after the low end of the market. The iPad is more of a high-end device. I expect Kindle Fire sales to be stronger than even the experts are planning this holiday season.