September 6 rumoured to be launch date for Amazon second generation Kindle Fire

The online retail giant Amazon has called for a press event on September 6, indicating the announcement of its second generation Kindle Fire tablet on the said date.

Rumours indicate that the Amazon Kindle Fire could feature a larger 10-inch screen and may run a heavily tweaked version of Android. It is likely to include a front-facing video calling camera plus microUSB and microHDMI ports.

Amazon plans to expand its mobile platform and broaden its offering of devices, developers and retail partners said last month. The company will introduce up to five or six tablet SKUs, or stock-keeping units, including a 10-inch model, according to Demos Parneros, president of U.S. Retail for Staples Inc, which sells existing Kindle devices.

Amazon has planned the launch event just a day after Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 launch event in New York, and days before Apple’s rumoured iPhone 5 launch event. It also comes on the heels of the biggest quarter in tablet sales history.

ABI Research has reported that tablet sales scaled new heights for the April to June quarter. “New vendors and products are entering the fray during the second half of the year, including tablets from Google and Microsoft,” said ABI research, adding, “We expect the new products to impact shares – both positively from Google Nexus 7 and negatively from Microsoft’s Surface tablets – of Google’s Android OS, used on most tablet models.”

Amazon launched its first tablet, the seven-inch Kindle Fire, in September 2011, its first foray into a market that is still dominated by Apple Inc’s iPad. Since then, Google has launched a seven-inch tablet called Nexus 7, which has seen decent number of sales.

Related:
Samsung’s answer to Apple iPad – Galaxy Note 10.1