Amazon said readying Kindle Fire successor

Amazon is preparing an improved version of its Kindle Fire tablet that will be thinner, lighter and boast an improved display, tech site AllThingsD reported. The online retailer hopes to debut the next generation Kindle Fire in the second half of this year, sources told AllThingsD. AllThingsD quoted sources who've been briefed on the new device saying developers are being told to build their apps for a display with a 1,280 x 800 pixel resolution, an upgrade from the 1,024 x 600 display of the current Kindle tablet. "The really interesting thing here is that the screen shape is changing slightly: From an aspect ratio of 1.71 (tall and narrow in its standard Portrait mode) to an aspect ratio of 1.60," DisplayMate President Raymond Soneira told AllThingsD. That will put the next Fire in line with a number of offerings in the tablet market. The 10.1-inch Toshiba Thrive and the Acer Iconia tablets both use 1,280 x 800 displays, as does Google's new Nexus 7 tablet. Amazon's new tablet may find itself up against stiff competition from Apple, rumored to be prepping a smaller iPad "Mini." A 7- or 8-inch-screen iPad priced at less than $300, as rumored, would be a tough opponent in the small, "light" tablet market.