American online retail giant, Amazon might be planning to release several new versions of its popular Kindle Fire tablet computers during this summer in order to increase the competition with the likes of Apple as well as other Android based manufactures in the market.

There were rumors earlier that the company is planning to launch its new Kindle Fire 2 tablet in July this year. But according to the president of US retail chain, Staples, Amazon will not just launch one version of the tablet but will offer a slew of tablet versions for the customers.

It is believed that Amazon might be working on as many as five or six new versions of the tablet in differing sizes and shapes. There is not information about the pricing of the tablet versions but the company will release the devices within this year.

Amazon's rival Samsung, which also offers Android based tablets, already offers tablets models that have 7-, 7.7-, 8.9-, and 10.1-inch screens. Amazon has strengthened its research and design center in the US and has also hired a number of hardware and software engineers.