Amazon Kindle Fire HD, HDX Tablets Enterprise Ready

By - Source: Amazon

In addition to announcing the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets, Fire OS 3.0 and a revised 7 inch Kindle Fire HD tablet, Amazon revealed early Wednesday morning that its new operating system introduces new enterprise and productivity features to the Kindle Fire platform. Thus the 7 inch Kindle Fire HDX, the 8.9 inch Kindle Fire HDX, and the 7 inch Kindle Fire HD 2013 model will be enterprise-ready when they begin shipping next month.

"Kindle Fire is already the second most popular tablet at work in the U.S.," said Raghu Murthi, Vice President of Enterprise and Education, Amazon. "As employees increasingly bring their own devices to work, the new Kindle Fire tablets can be easily integrated into the workplace with the new enterprise features, including encryption, secure Wi-Fi, a native VPN client, integration with leading MDM solutions, and Kerberos support for Intranet access."

Fire OS 3.0 provides a native VPN client for instant access to corporate networks while on the road or at home, secure hardware data encryption (HDX models only), Kerberos authentication for single sign-on and the ability to browse secure Intranet websites from the Silk browser on Kindle Fire. A native SCEP (Simple Certificate Exchange Protocol) client is used to retrieve digital certificates for secure resources.

The new platform also provides Kindle-specific device management APIs that integrate with existing mobile device management (MDM) systems to make it easy for IT departments to manage Kindle Fire. Kindle Fire supports a wide range of MDM solutions including Amazon's Whispercast service as well as third-party vendors like AirWatch, Citrix, Fiberlink, Good Technology, and SOTI, the company said.

On a more consumer-friendly level, the new OS supports Wi-Fi networks using WPA2 security, printing documents and emails directly to a wireless printer, and a built-in OfficeSuite solution for reading documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Business customers can also take advantage of Android enterprise and productivity apps available in the Amazon Appstore such as GoToMeeting, Evernote, Cisco AnyConnect, and Documents To Go.

Some of these features will be delivered as part of the free, over-the-air Fire OS 3.1 update in mid-November, the company said. The Kindle Fire HDX models will also include a "Mayday" button, the company's on-device tech support that's available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Users simply tap "Mayday" to be connected to an Amazon expert who can co-pilot users through any features. Blind and visually impaired customers can leverage new and improved accessibility tools such as Screen Reader, Explore by Touch, and Screen Magnifier, the company said.

The 7 inch Kindle Fire HDX can be pre-purchased now, but the Wi-Fi version doesn't ship until October 18; the 4G LTE models will ship starting November 14. As for the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 tablet, customers can pre-purchase the device here. The Wi-Fi only model ships November 7 and the 4G LTE model ships on December 10.

Kevin Parrish is a contributing editor and writer for Tom's Hardware,Tom's Games and Tom's Guide. He's also a graphic artist, CAD operator and network administrator.

See here for all of Kevin's Tom's IT Pro articles.

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