Kindle has bowed to the color table world by releasing their version called Kindle Fire. Although the release date is November 15, 2011, Amazon is taking pre-orders today. There is high expectation and excitement with Kindle Fire. Not only can one read novels and books but now can read magazines, watch movies, watch children’s books come alive and more.

The Kindle Fire has a 7" vibrant color touchscreen. The touchscreen delivers 16 million colors via IPS (In-plane switching) technology. This is very similar to the technology used by Apple. Being touchscreen the Kindle Fire is beautiful and simple to use. With its intuitive designed interface your content is virtually at your fingertips. Whatever you mood, you can watch, read, browse, listen or play with a single touch. The state-of-the-art dual processor allows the user to stream music while browsing the Internet.

One key feature being advertised is their new ‘Amazon Silk’ cloud-accelerated browser. The Amazon Silk browser will use a split browser technology to leverage computing speed as well as the power of the Amazon cloud web service pack. Adobe Flash will be supported by Amazon Silk. Storage will be made available to users, and it is free.

Since Kindle Fire is Amazon’s first tablet it has been reinforced for extra durability. Being chemical strengthened it is reported to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, making it extra durable and scratch/bump resistant.

Email is another feature that will come standard on the Kindle Fire. This is an example of many APPs that will be available for the Kindle Fire. Amazon’s Whispersync will be standard for the Kindle Fire. Automatically sync your library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights. Whispersync for the Kindle fire will extend to videos. You can start streaming a movie, take a break, then pick up right where you left off on the Kindle Fire

The price point for Kindle Fire starts at $199.

There were hopes that Kindle Fire would use the anticipated color e-Ink but according to Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO) color e-ink still isn’t quite up to the standard he would like to see. Color e-Ink readers were introduced at CES 2011 in Las Vegas. The issue quickly became whether consumers would find the color e-Ink acceptable. e-Ink can display over 4,000 colors with very sharp images but unlike back-lit displays there just is not the same brightness or saturation users have come to expect. The other drawback is the refresh speed of color e-Ink. This did not stop a color Kindle from being developed. As an entry level tablet, it can be sold alongside the e-Ink version Kindle readers are familiar with..

So the debate continues. My eye choice for reading is still e-Ink. I personally value my eyes more than vibrate back-lit pictures Tablets do have their place and it was time for Amazon to jump into the table market. I see Kindle Fire as being a companion to the Kindle, not a replacement.