The Kindle Fire, the first in what we believe will be a long line of fully functional Amazon media devices, has already achieved over 1 million preorders before launch. A simple, basic, and pleasantly functional device; the Kindle Fire is more of a gateway to a vast ocean of media than a high-tech toy.

While the Kindle Fire does bear the Kindle name, it is by no means an E Ink device like its cousins. This Android based tablet is powered by a dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP processor, paired with a modest 512MB of RAM, along with only 8GB of storage. The screen is a 1024 x 600 IPS LCD panel measuring seven inches in width, with bright colors and broad viewing angles.

 

While many might balk at the low storage space on the Kindle Fire, a large hard drive seems to be outside of Amazon’s vision for this device. This device was designed to serve as a passport to a world of streaming media, from books, to music, movies, apps, and games which are all stored and accessed via the cloud.

 

Amazon has managed to successfully create their own content ecosystem, building up their own world rather than truly allowing access to the open universe. Those who use the Kindle Fire will not have access to the Android Market, but will find themselves linked in to the Amazon App Store instead. Amazon Prime members have instant access to an ever-growing selection of instantly streaming movies, and Amazon offers to store all the music you purchase within their cloud for free.

 

With the emergence of the Kindle Fire, Amazon Prime membership ceases to be merely a promotional way to get fast shipping, but becomes a golden ticket to a new first-class world that we are just now starting to glimpse on the horizon.