We now have an official Japanese Kindle Fire 8.9 release date as the pre-order for the device goes live. The Kindle Fire 8.9 was released in 2012 for US users but will be released on March 12th for Japanese customers and pre-orders are available as of today. President and CEO of Amazon Japan Jasper Chan said the following about the Kindle Fire 8.9:
We are pleased to announce today in Japan the Kindle Fire HD (8.9)…the bestseller is a commodity that since its launch, has been an Amazon best seller worldwide
Now that we know the Kindle Fire 8.9 release date, lets look at the specs for the upcoming device. The Kindle Fire 8.9 will include all of the following:
- 8.9-inch 1920×1200 resolution display
- Dual band Wi-Fi MIMO support that enables high-speed streaming and download
- SGX544 graphics engine and the TI OMAP 4470 processor
- Dolby Audio and dual stereo speakers, allows for sound without distortion
- Battery life equal to 10 hours of continuous usage
- HD front-facing camera
- Large selection of digital content than can be chosen for download
All of the devices in the Kindle Fire series have been widely successful across the globe, with Japan being one of the largest markets for it. The Kindle Fire 8.9 garnered very good reviews when it was released on November 20th in the US. As with many of the other Kindle devices, Amazon made sure to focus on continuing to improve the performance of the screen without hindering its ability to work well in all different types of light (since it is still a “reading” device of sorts.)
The Kindle Fire 8.9 uses the custom Amazon Operating System which is based off of Android 4.0. As far as pricing goes, the Amazon Kindle Fire 8.9 will retail for 24,800 Yen ($269) for the 16GB version and 29,800 Yen ($323) for the 32GB version. Japanese customers can pre-order the device HERE.