IHS iSuppli reports Amazon will sell the new Kindle Fire tablet at a "razor-thin margin on sales" of both devices and digital content-- in order to promote physical product sales from the Amazon online store.

The analyst estimates the Kindle Fire costs around $192 to make, with additional manufacturing expenses rising the total price to $209.63. The device itself will cost $199 on shelves.

While commentators say the Kindle Fire will make profit through digital content sales, iSuppli insists the Continue reading...

Many look to Amazon's tablet launch to ignite the flame of competition against iPad. While the new Kindle Fire features a 7" colour IPS display (2-point multitouch), 8GB memory, a dual-core processor and a $199 price point, it's not the hardware that excites the market but the Amazon platform, the ability to supply content and apps in a cloud infrastructure that rivals or even surpasses Apple's.

Amazon also provides a 30-day free trial to Amazon Prime, its video on demand subscription service. Continue reading...

Belkin announces a new set of tablet accessories for customers wishing to use their devices in the kitchen.

The Chef Stand + Stylus has a non-slip rubber base supporting devices in either landscape or vertical mode, and an iPad-compatible stylus (with a magnetic tip to awaken an iPad 2 from sleep mode).

As the name suggests, the Fridge Mount secures tablets (7-10" in size) to a refridgerator door or wall, using 3M Command Strips to secure the device in place.

Finally the Kitchen Cabinet Mount Continue reading...

Will Ultrabooks take the market by storm? Trendforce believes so, predicting Ultrabooks will take at least 10% of the notebook market by 2012 while stimulating the industry in general.

Trendforce says Ultrabooks "will hopefully sweep away the clouds of tablet PC popularity" as they grow further-- from 2% market share in 2011 to around 40% by 2015.

Ultrabooks will also drive further technology improvement from the component industry, resulting in growth for SSD, low power RAM, battery, LED backlight Continue reading...

Waterstone's sets to rival the Amazon Kindle as it will launch an eReader next year.

The news comes from a BBC interview with Waterstone's MD James Daunt, who says the company takes inspiration from the Barnes and Noble Nook.

Daunt says the Waterstone's eReader is "well down the planning line."

The Amazon Kindle currently dominates the eReader landscape, with 35% EMEA 2010 market share according to IDC-- even if Amazon fails to release formal sales figures for the device.

Waterstone's will also Continue reading...

DigiTimes reports Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba and Asus are limiting initial Ultrabook shipments to below 50000 as a means to test the waters, according to unnamed sources close to the vendors.

The reason? Doubts over whether Q4 2011 notebook demand will see recovery while Apple continues taking the market.

After all, Ultrabooks sit somewhere between 2 uncomfortable stools-- netbooks and laptops.

Intel is hosting an Ultrabook conference on September 14 in the hopes to both attract more notebook players Continue reading...

The Apple-Samsung patent battle continues with a casualty-- Samsung loses the chance to showcase the Galaxy Tab 7.7 at IFA 2011.

The Bloomberg report follows orders from a Düsseldorf court banning sales and marketing of the newly announced tablet.

Galaxy Tab 7.7 demo models did show up for the first days of the show-- clad with stickers saying "NOT FOR SALE IN GERMANY"-- but not anymore.

Apple and Samung's legal disputes take place across 3 continents, as Apple accuses Samsung of copying iPhone Continue reading...

Acer launches its first Ultrabook at IFA 2011-- the Aspire S3, one of a number of new devices falling under the new Intel-created category.

The Aspire S3 is 1.3cm thick, weighs around 1.4kg and carries a full-size chiclet keyboard, all within an aluminium/magnesium allow chassis.

Using an open cell design, the 13.3" display uses the lid and bezel to form an alumium frame around the screen.

It carries Acer Green Instant On technology, which the company says provides instant-resume functionality Continue reading...