SEATTLE — Amazon.com is launching a new, Alexa-enabled Fire tablet as it warms up for the holiday shopping frenzy.
The gadget, an 8-inch slate with a high-definition display, starts at $90, $60 cheaper than its less-advanced predecessor of the same size.
The pricing follows Amazon’s philosophy of selling hardware at cut-rate prices while making money either off content sales or by enticing people to subscribe to the Prime loyalty program, which comes loaded with video and music perks, as well as two-day shipping.
“Our mission is not to make money when people purchase the device. We make money when they use the device,” Kevin Keith, the Amazon general manager in charge of Fire tablets, said in an interview.
Moderate prices have helped Seattle-based Amazon buck the recent trend as sales declines have dogged the tablet market. Tech research firm IDC said last month that worldwide tablet shipments had fallen more than 12 percent in the second quarter of this year.
At the same time, Amazon’s “very focused approach to positioning, price and purpose, managed to capture a considerable share of the market,” IDC analyst Jean Philppe Bouchard said.
Keith, the Amazon executive, declined to disclose sales figures. But he said that tablet sales “have more than doubled year on year.”
Amazon says the new Fire HD 8 has 12 hours of battery life, a third more than the model it replaces. Internal storage in the $90 model goes up to 16 gigabytes from 8, plus support for a microSD card. A 32 GB model goes for $120.
Amazon is also wrapping Alexa, the voice-powered artificial intelligence first made popular through the Echo speaker, into the tablet.
That means users can speak to the device to control the playback of videos, music, and news, among other tricks, as long as the tablet is connected to a Wi-Fi network.
But unlike with the Echo speaker, which is always listening for the keyword “Alexa” or “Echo” to activate, users of the tablet need to press a button to make it work.
Also, in addition to a voice response, in many cases Alexa will make a visual “card” pop up on the screen showcasing the information requested — the weather, for example.
Amazon says it will deploy Alexa to other Fire tablets as it updates their software in the near future.
The new tablet will start shipping on Sept. 21.
