I know what you are thinking - a third Futurebook blog on Kindle Fire? Really? But bear with me. Despite editing The Bookseller magazine's news section yesterday, I found myself sidetracked as more and more information crept out about the Kindle Fire. I found it terribly exciting: when it (eventually/hopefully) hits the UK, what we are looking at is a quality tablet for under £200. Surprisingly though one of the biggest losers from the Fire's announcement could be books, in spite of a new generation of Real Kindles.

Unlike the iPad, Fire has a great price, a critical factor during the recession. And it's only going to go in one direction. Think of the iRex iLiad's ridiculous £399 price when Borders starting selling it in 2007 and the fact you can now pick up a Kindle, a vastly superior device in every way, for just over a fifth of that price today. By the time it heads over here, it could be even better. Unlike other Android enabled devices, Amazon is likely to offer a great retail experience. My mobile is an Android-enabled Galaxy SII, a cracking phone but having to shop on the Android marketplace is a nightmare. It's great when you know what you are looking for but browsing is appalling.

So Amazon is offering a solid, mass-market tablet, with a likely to be an easy shopping experience and offers all forms of media. And it's hand-held.

Book-app developers may be rubbing their hands with glee but publishers vying for a customer's time may be a bit concerned. As an aside, I wonder what the new Amazon price for its entry level Kindle means for the UK e-book market, and specifically Waterstone's. In a conversation with an independent bookseller this week, she said to me that for most people Amazon *was* e-book reading. Waterstone's has the brand identity to break that but its device will have to be priced incredibly competitively for people to turn their heads way from the Kindle.

As has been pointed out numerous times elsewhere, books are not facing challenges from other books. More than ever before, it's from casual gaming as well as console gaming, television, social networking and movies. Fire offers access to all of these. If anything, the Fire will probably offer a lousy long-form reading experience given the backlit screen. If Fire turns Kindle users away from reading, then it could be spectacular own goal.