Amazon is stretching its gaming muscles as Amazon Game Studio launches its
first mobile game.
Titled Air Patriots, the game combines elements of the popular
mobile game, Flight Control, with strategic tower defense-style
gameplay.
Players will draw the flight paths for their squadron of planes while
defending their base from invading enemies on the ground.
On Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, Air Patriots will make use of Amazon GameCircle to track more than
50 achievements. Users can also take advantage of WhisperSync to save game
progress in the cloud to transfer between Kindle Fires.
Amazon has been growing its game development studios over the last year,
starting with the launch of its first Facebook gameLiving Classics.
Amazon in entering the social game space during an interesting time. The once
dominant EA and Zynga both shed much of their workforce as the latter also
reports substantial third quarter losses.
The move to mobile games makes Amazon one of only two companies to make both
a tablet and mobile games to play on it. The second is Microsoft, which has its
first-party Microsoft Games Studio developing for Surface as
well as Windows Phone.
Amazon launched its game simultaneously on Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD, as
well as all Android devices, iPhone, and iPad.
It's a free download, which includes the first three levels, and users can
get the remaining four levels with an in-app purchase of $2.99 (UK£1.85,
AUD$2.87).
Netflix has released a dedicated Kindle Fire app for the UK, taking the movie streaming fight to Lovefilm on its own Amazon-owned turf.
The Netflix app is now available in the Amazon App Store in the UK so you can now stream Netflix's films and TV shows on the Amazon Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD.
There
is already an Android app for Netflix and this is really just a
rebadged version for the Amazon tablets, but it's not difficult to see
why the streaming service would want to directly target the Kindle
devices.
Amazon owns both the Kindle line and Lovefilm, and has pre-loaded the Kindle tablets with the Lovefilm app.
As
well as this, the company has made it easy for new Kindle Fire owners
to link their Amazon and Lovefilm accounts for all their video streaming
needs.
The Kindle Fire line-up has already proven hugely popular
in the States, with Amazon claiming it as the best-selling product ever
on Amazon.com; and with its killer combination of low price-tag, good reviews and Amazon's marketing might, it's set to do well everywhere else too with its defacto Lovefilm movie streaming on board.
The two companies have been battling it out for content rights since Netflix hit the UK in January 2012, but now the fight has moved to the platform stage where Amazon has a huge advantage.
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD has been named the "#1
best-selling product across all of Amazon worldwide" by the online retail
giant.
We saw Amazon launch the Kindle Fire HD
back in September as it looked to tackle the Google Nexus 7 which took the budget tablet market by storm
in the middle of this year.
Clearly wanting to take the fight to
Google, and possibly firing a warning shot at Apple with its incoming iPad mini, Amazon has slapped a best-selling
tag on its 7-inch Android tablet.
Amazon hasn't been forthcoming with any
sort of sales figures, or an explanation as to how the Kindle Fire HD has become
a best-selling tablet – this could mean anything from its sold the most units of
any product ever, or simply that it the most popular device at this time.
With all that in mind, we're taking
Amazon's latest claim with a pinch of salt, as it's not clear how well the
Kindle Fire HD is actually selling in comparison to other tablets on the
market.
Kindle Fire named 'most successful' Amazon product
The Kindle Fire is the most successful product in Amazon's history, the company has announced.
Vice president of Amazon Kindle Dave Limp revealed that the device is selling by the millions, holding its position as the retailer's most popular product for 11 straight weeks.
"Kindle Fire is the most successful product we've ever launched - it's the bestselling product across all of Amazon for 11 straight weeks, we've already sold millions of units, and we're building millions more to meet the high demand," he said.
"In fact, demand is accelerating - Kindle Fire sales increased week over week for each of the past three weeks. People are buying Kindle Fire because it's a simple, fully-integrated service that makes it easy to do the things they love - watch movies, read books and magazines, listen to music, download apps, play games and surf the web."
Amazon was previously tight-lipped on the e-reader's sales figures, though market research firm IHS iSuppli's estimates ranked it as the closest competitor to Apple's iPad.
The Kindle Fire was released in North America on September 28. A UK launch is yet to be officially announced.
Amazon has unveiled a colour tablet computer called the Kindle Fire.
The $199 (£130) device will run a modified version of Google's Android operating system.
Until now, the company has limited itself to making black and white e-readers, designed for consuming books and magazines.
As well as targeting Apple's iPad, Amazon is likely to have its sights on rival bookseller US Barnes & Noble, which already has a colour tablet.
The Kindle Fire will enter a hugely competitive market, dominated by Apple's iPad.
Amazon will be hoping to leverage both the strength of the Kindle brand, built up over three generations of its popular e-book reader, and its ability to serve up content such as music and video.
In recent years, the company has begun offering downloadable music for sale, and also has a streaming video-on-demand service in the United States. Those, combined with its mobile application store, give it a more sophisticated content "ecosystem" than most of its rivals.
"It's the price and the backup services that make it really exciting," said Will Findlater, editor of Stuff magazine.
"Content is the big differentiator. It's what every other platform has been lacking, except the iPad."
Amazon's decision to opt for a 7" screen, as opposed to the larger 10" displays favoured by many rival manufacturers was a cause for concern for Ovum analyst Adam Leach.
"This screen size has undoubtedly helped them achieve a lower price point for the device but so far this form factor has not been popular with consumers, we shall see if this is related to other aspects of those devices other than its screen size. " Digital dividend
Digital content has already proved itself to be a money-spinner for Amazon.
Although the company has never released official sales figures for the Kindle, it did state - in December 2010 - that it was now selling more electronic copies of books than paper copies.
Its US rival, Barnes & Noble, has also enjoyed success with its Nook devices.
In October 2010, the company unveiled the Nook Color, which also runs a version of Android, albeit with lower hardware specs than many fully featured tablets.
While the Nook Color is largely focused on book and magazine reading, some users have managed to unlock its wider functionality and install third-party apps.
The Kindle Fire's $199 (£130) price tag undercuts the Nook Color by $50 (£30) and is significantly cheaper than more powerful tablets from Apple, Samsung, Motorola and others.
It is due to go on sale on 15 November in the US, although global release dates are currently unavailable.
Price cuts
Alongside the Kindle Fire, Amazon also announced a refresh of its Kindle e-readers.
The entry level device has had its keyboard removed and will now sell for $79, down from $99. Amazon UK announced that the new version would retail at £89.
A version with limited touchscreen capability, known as the Kindle Touch, will sell for $99. Only the US pricing has been announced so far.
"These are premium products at non premium prices," said Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos. "We are going to sell millions of these."
