Will Amazon's budget 7in Kindle Fire HD scorch Google's Nexus HD plans?

Will Amazon's budget 7in Kindle Fire HD scorch Google's Nexus HD plans?
Amazon - fighting Nexus with Fire

Update: As well as a $99 Kindle Fire HD 7-inch would sell, it looks like that price point may not be in the cards for Amazon any time soon.

Business Insider retained a statement from an Amazon spokesperson who said, "It's not happening - we are already at the lowest price points possible for that hardware."

The operative word here may be "that" as the spokesperson could have been leaving room for a $99 regular Kindle Fire or other unknown piece of hardware.

We'll just have to wait to see if Amazon gets a little more talky down the road.

Original article...

Amazon may be planning to release a cheaper Kindle Fire HD 7-inch before the year is out.

The word comes from TechCrunch, whose mysterious sources say that the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD will come with a price tag of $99 (around £60, AU$95).

They add that the tablet will come with a TI processor similar to the rest of the Fire family, as well as the 1280x800 resolution already on the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD.

Money talks

The current 7-inch Kindle Fire HD sells for £159 in the UK and $199 in the US, so it'll be a fairly significant price drop if these rumours turn out to be true.

It may seem a little too significant a drop to possibly be real, but Amazon has a habit of selling its tech hardware at a loss and scooping up the difference by selling ebooks, films, music and apps through its mutated Android software once you've got it home.

It'll face some hefty competition though; many will be inclined to shell out a little more for the iPad mini, while others will go for the cleaner Android running on Google's Nexus 7, itself rumoured to be getting a reasonably-priced HD edition later this year too.

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.