Amazon's Kindle Fire e-reader looks set to finally reach British shores, well over a year after it surfaced in America.

The device broke new ground as the first tablet to sell for under $200 which offered the combined benefits of an e-reader and the ability to stream a wide range of film and TV content.

But on the breaking of the news yesterday, some commentators immediately said they thought Amazon had left it too late to capitalise fully on the Kindle Fire's US success.

The company has been selling the Kindle Fire at a loss in the US, but saw it as a way of carving a new niche in a market dominated by Apple's iPad.

This long-awaited release could, though, find its thunder stolen by Google – ironically the supplier of the Android operating system on which the Kindle Fire runs, and which has been the source of much of the positive press for the device.

The ASUS-built Google Nexus 7 tablet is slated for a release next week, while also on the horizon is the next iteration of the iPad, with speculation suggesting it could pack a larger screen of nearly eight inches, compared to the seven-inch Kindle.