Seattle – Amazon’s Kindle Fire
tablet will launch with the ability to download any of “several thousand”
Android apps and games that Amazon has tested for use on the device, the
company announced.
The
, downloadable from Amazon’s AppStore, include Netflix, Rhapsody,
Pandora, Twitter, Comics by ComiXology, Facebook, The Weather Channel and games
from Zynga, EA, Gameloft, PopCap and Rovio. Other apps and games include Allrecipes,
Bloomberg, Cut the Rope, Doodle Fit, Doodle Jump, Fruit Ninja, Jenga, LinkedIn,
Zillow, Airport Mania, Battleheart, Pulse, The Cat in the Hat, Quickoffice Pro,
Jamie’s 20-Minute Meals, IMDb Movies & TV, and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox.
Kindle VP Dave Limp claimed the
response from app developers “has been overwhelming” and that the selection of
Fire-optimized apps will grow.
Kindle Fire customers will be able to use
Amazon’s 1-Click payment technology to download the apps and games without
having to register multiple times, the company noted. In addition, Fire owners
can get a paid app for free every day, and after users download an app to the
Fire, the app will be available on the user’s other Android devices, the
company said. These features are also available to consumers who download
Android apps from Amazon to their Android smartphones and other-brand Android
tablets.
With the Netflix app, Fire users
can stream an unlimited number of TV shows and movies starting on the Fire and
resume watching where they left off on a computer or Netflix-enabled TV.
The $199 tablet with 7-inch color
touchscreen also downloads more than 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, books,
and magazines from Amazon’s online store. Though the Fire features only 8GB of
embedded memory and no memory-card slot, users who download a lot of content get
free unlimited Amazon Cloud storage to back up their purchases.
