Amazon yesterday formally revealed its new rival to the iPad rival,  the Kindle Fire tablet.  It  will cost less than half (as the Drum predicted)  what  Apple charges for an iPad. The full-colour, touchscreen tablet starts at just $199 compared with the iPad's $499.

The KIndle Fire  is a 7-inch tablet a bit like the BlackBerry PlayBook. It has a version of Google's Android operating system, and  an Amazon Web browser called Silk.  

Also in the package:  Wi-Fi capability, a dual-core processor and 8 GB of built-in storage. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said after that there was  unlimited storage on Amazon's cloud servers. 

At the unveiling in New York, Bezos wore jeans and a black blazer, not a black turtleneck as Steve Jobs would have chosen, but the impression was that he was using the Jobs playbook.  

He took to the stage backlit by a giant screen highlighting the company's new devices. He  kept the audience rapt as he built up to the introduction of the  Kindle Fire in a performance, just like Jobs.  

We would  like to have brought you the Bezos video. But puzzlingly, embedding was disabled  "by request." So here's a link in any case.  

Forbes writer Clare O'Connor reported on Bezos "His perfect performance ... positions him as Jobs' heir apparent: the next CEO-as-symbol."  

Edelman Vice President Steve Rubel tweeted, "Amazon uses devices to sell more content. Apple uses content to sell more devices." 

Amazon's low price on the KIndle Fire may cost it up to $50 per unit sold, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Amazon aims to profit however by selling content including magazine subscriptions and its core media offerings -- e-books, movies and music. 

Bezos told Bloomberg News that other Apple competitors "just sold a piece of hardware. We don't think of the  Kindle Fire as a tablet. We think of it as a service."   

On its website, Amazon told visitors, "There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp."

In the same interview, given before the launch, Bezos spoke about  Amazon and Apple.

"On a personal level, we have a tremendous amount of respect for Apple and Steve. I think that's returned," he said.

"Our cultures start in the same place. Both companies like to invent, both companies like to pioneer, both companies start with the customer and work backwards. There's a like-mindedness." 

Bezos also introduced  new Kindles, including touchscreen versions and a new, $79 e-reader aimed at  budget-minded consumers.