As its Appstore for Android dies today, Amazon is reportedly preparing to completely revamp its Fire Tablet lineup with a full embrace of Android rather than its heavily forked “Fire OS.”
Amazon’s Fire Tablet lineup has been based on Android since its inception over a decade ago, but “Fire OS” is a heavy fork on Android, doing away with many of the core principles on which the platform is built on, and also lacking access to the Google Play Store.
That may soon change, though.
Reuters reports that Amazon is preparing a “major revamp” for Fire Tablet which will see a full adoption of Android rather than Amazon’s forked take on the OS. The project is said to be called “Kittyhawk” internally and would result in a new tablet being released next year. The project is described as “multiyear” and a “philosophical change for the online retail giant.”
This new Android-first tablet would be more expensive than existing models, with a $400 price tag in discussion. As it stands today, a Fire Tablet can easily be purchased for as little as $60-80, with the company’s most expensive Fire Max 11 generally selling for $230 (but often on sale, as the whole lineup is). There’s no word on what sort of tablet this would be, as Amazon’s current lineup ranges from super-affordable 7-inch devices up to 11-inch slates.
The report’s sources warn, though, that the project “could be delayed or cancelled over financial or other concerns.”
This news comes quite literally on the day that Amazon is shutting down its in-house “Amazon Appstore,” at least on the broader Android platform. The store will continue to operate on Fire Tablet and Fire TV, but general Android users will no longer have access starting today, as previously announced.
Meanwhile, Amazon is said to be ditching Android as the base of its Fire TV platform this year.
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