My favorite source of tech industry gossip is back again today with a juicy new rumor about Amazon's next tablets. Digitimes is reporting that
MediaTek reportedly has landed orders for its MT8135 quad-core solutions from Amazon for its new entry-level Kindle Fire tablets, and shipments of the chipsets will begin in 2014, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.
If this rumor is true, MediaTek won't be supplying these chips for the new Kindle Fires which are expected to ship later this year. The latest rumors suggest that those tablets are going to use Qualcomm CPUs, have higher resolution screens, and generally aim for the upper end of the tablet market.
MediaTek's chips, on the other hand, are intended not for the lower end of the market so much as for less intensive uses. That makes it hard for me to believe that Amazon's increasingly upmarket tablets would use MediaTek chips.
Amazon's ereaders, on the other hand, are a different matter. I would not be surprised if the MediaTek rumors were true to a limited degree. Rather than be used in a Kindle Fire tablet, these chips might instead be intended for a Liquavista screen equipped Kindle ereader.
We know that Amazon owns Liquavista, and we know that there's a good chance that Amazon is working on custom CPUs to put inside their hardware. Amazon even employs a system and chip architect that used to work at MediaTek, which could explain the rumored new connection with that chipmaker. And an ereader with a Liquavista screen could look a lot like a tablet don't you agree?
There's also a chance that these chips will be used in an entirely unknown device, though I'm not sure how to quantify that possibility. Thoughts?
amazon.es hasn’t Kindle Paperwhite regular… only 3G. Mean it that PW2 is underway or is it just a problem of stock?
I know. I’m not sure it means anything.
The problem is the 2014 delivery date.
The most logical new “low-end” device would be a Fire STB but if Amazon is getting into that business, they need to do it this fall.
I read that amazon sources says the kindle liquaviste will arrive in late 2014… date agree. I wonder what they plan to do the other companies (kobo, sony, etc) ¿mirasol? ¿triton?
What sources? I haven’t read anything solid.
A spanish web… this: http://miexperienciakindle.blogspot.com.es/2013/07/que-prepara-amazon-para-2014.html
Sorry… is in spanish.
In short say an amazon source confirms they are developing color kindles but will not arrive until late next year.
Who is the source is reliable or not know but I still blog in a while and looks serious
Pd.: sorry my bad inglish…
Thanks!
That particular report claims as a given that the new Kobo and Sony T3 will use the aura screen and from that deduces the next KPW will, too.
Oh, it says the T3 will use the 6.8″ screen? I missed that.
Good. The T3 pretty clearly has a 6″ screen so now we know that source is bunk.
A reason to be skeptical, anyway.
Unless eink has a better-than-XGA six-incher for the T3…
Do you really think Sony would want a super high-res screen? I don’t.
[…] a related note, this could also be related to the MediaTek CPU rumor from yesterday. One of MediaTek's specialties is "digital multimedia solutions", which is another name that you […]