14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon's first foray into the Android world, albeit an Android world it created and controlled, was quite successful. The Kindle Fire sold in huge numbers last year and sales continued to be high even as other tablets dropped prices and bumped up specs.
Up until the Nexus 7 came around, Kindle Fire had its market cornered, and Google's tablet is only now available in enough numbers in stock.
It's going to be harder to recreate the Fire's success this time around though, Amazon doesn't have that many options, it can't really drop the price much lower and even if it matches the Nexus 7's specs, it's not going to be landslide victory.
So Amazon is looking outside of the US keep volume high. In fact, it's arguable that, because Amazon knows it won't be selling so many tablets in the US, it has the production capacity to cater to other markets.
While Amazon is still to announce the successor to the Kindle Fire, let alone whether it's going to be available outside the US or not, one move signals that Amazon is definitely expanding its reach.
It is now launching the Amazon Appstore, for the Kindle Fire and any Android user that wants to install it, in several European countries.
The Appstore is never going to be that popular with regular Android users for the launch to be only about them. So Amazon is definitely going to sell an Android-based device in Europe and soon.
The only question, actually, is whether it's going to be the Kindle Fire, the Kindle Fire 2 or whatever it's going to be called, or both. Amazon is clearly preparing a successor to the Kindle Fire, probably launching next week.
But it may decide to drop the price on the original Kindle Fire and keep selling it. One year in, Amazon could go as low as $150 or maybe even $140, which would entice plenty of people.
What's more, there's no cheap tablet as of yet in Europe, the Nexus 7 is only now starting to be available, at €200, even the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 is more expensive than in the US. A Kindle Fire for €150 and a Kindle Fire 2 for €200 is going to sell like hotcakes in the old continent.