Amazon.com Inc showed off the first of several Kindle gadgets expected to be unwrapped on Thursday, a \u201cpaperwhite\u201d e-reader with a much sharper screen and longer battery life.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, taking the stage at a launch event in Santa Monica, California, is expected to unveil later on Thursday the new Kindle Fire tablet, which takes aim at a market dominated by Apple Inc.<\/p>\n
The 3G wireless version that made digital readers mainstream will sell for $179 starting in October, in time for the crucial holiday season. A wifi-only version will go for $119, and the cheapest will carry a $69 price tag \u2014 undercutting the cheapest Barnes and Noble Nook.<\/p>\n
Bezos on Thursday stressed that Amazon saw the Kindle family of e-readers and tablets as a service, with hardware a critical element of its digital content business.<\/p>\n
Amazon is competing with Apple, Google Inc and other technology companies for a foothold in the booming mobile-device market, because they are fast becoming the preferred tool to access consumer media over the Internet. As the world\u2019s largest Internet retailer, it is essential for Amazon to have a major presence in this new sector.<\/p>\n
Shares in Amazon, which hit a record high earlier on Thursday, were up 1.1 percent at $249<\/p>\n
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