Kindle Fire puts a tablet behind Amazon’s store

Kindle Fire uses a seven-inch color display and a simplified interface designed around Amazon’s catalog. The tablet gives customers a direct path to books, video, music, and apps.

Amazon’s Silk browser and cloud services are part of the pitch, moving some web work through the company’s infrastructure. The hardware is less ambitious than an iPad, but the price is intentionally aggressive.

This is a retail strategy expressed as a device. Amazon can make the tablet useful through content and shopping, while customers get an inexpensive screen for consumption.