Posted on 09/28/2011 1:24:11 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The company's new Kindle Fire tablet, a 7-inch touch-screen device powered by Amazon's content ecosystem and priced at just $199, may be an orange to Apple's iPad apple, but I'd argue that it's an iPad killer all the same.
On paper, the Kindle Fire has half the features of the iPad. In fact, it's almost literally half the features--here's a handy comparison chart so you can see for yourself. There's no camera, front or rear; the 8GB of onboard storage is half the amount of the base-model iPad; the Fire has no cellular options, no built-in GPS, and no Bluetooth, as the iPad does. The software options compared to the iPad are minimal, and the app library for Android still isn't nearly as robust as the iOS app library. All true facts. Doesn't matter.
There may be more strikes against the Kindle Fire, too: Amazon hasn't explicitly denied that it will block access to competing content-delivery apps like Hulu, Netflix, or any upstart e-bookstores that might want to be on the Fire, but I'd be surprised if you ever find them there. Amazon has taken a closed, proprietary approach with the Kindle line, and I think it's more than a safe bet to say that this won't be the "open" Android tablet experience you've been hearing about with the Galaxy Tabs or the Xooms of the world. Not even close, in fact.
And then, of course, there's the fact that the Kindle Fire is a 7-inch tablet in a 10-inch tablet world. All previous 7-inch competitors, from the original Galaxy Tab to the poor, doomed PlayBook have fallen by the wayside--while Steve Jobs personally mocked them as "dead on arrival", and once gruesomely suggested you'd have to file down your fingers to live with one.
Again, all true facts about the Kindle Fire, none of which matter. In these troubled times, and possibly even before, you need look no further than the $99 TouchPad buying frenzy for the lesson of the tablet market (and maybe every other electronics market, ultimately): it's the price, stupid.
At $199, virtually any mainstream consumer is going to stand next to these two devices, look at them side-by-side, and make a price-conscious decision--and that decision is easier than you might think, as tablet usage starts to sort itself out. Sure, the Kindle Fire lacks a camera for video chat and movie-making. So what? Hardly anyone is doing that with their tablets anyway. No GPS? That's what your phone is for. No Bluetooth? Shrug. It's one hundred and ninety-nine dollars.
The iPad, in even sideways competition with a Kindle Fire, faces the same problem it's always had, but it's a bigger problem now. The problem is that hardly anyone actually needs an iPad. And as tablet usage starts to shake out, it's more and more apparent that a low-cost option with fewer features will actually suit most people's first-world needs. According to a recent Citigroup survey, the vast majority of tablet users use these devices primarily for lightweight entertainment: mostly casual gaming, Web browsing, e-mail, and, increasingly, e-books.
Fully half of tablet users are streaming video. We're also traveling with them like crazy, which means throwing them in bags; taking them to restaurants, which means exposing them to foodstuffs of all sorts; and giving them to our kids, which means, well, you know. Also, 35 percent of respondents to a Staples survey said they use their tablets in the bathroom. I'm just saying, wouldn't you rather that be a $199 tablet than a $500 tablet?
In my opinion, Amazon has kicked off more than a price war, here. It's unquestionably slaughtered every Android tablet on the market, and it's set up a showdown with the iPad that doesn't have to be feature for feature. If anything, Amazon has done what Apple did with the iPad in the first place: create an entirely new market. And the timing simply couldn't be better.
I agree about the iPad size. It's too big to fit in a jacket pocket. If I need to drag it around in a briefcase, I would want a bigger screen than 10 inches.
Ok he has his belief, others have theirs, right now the facts are not there to support the speculation..
The cheaper wannabes are the ones that will have trouble. To be honest it is a different market all together than the iPad, with some crossover in the consumer stuff.
Absolutely not.
But it is going to be a success exactly because it isn’t competing with the iPad.
your troglodyte tag line cracks me up.
I havn’t had a watch since the eighties when I started carrying a programmable calculator with a built in clock and alarm clock. It was an HP 48SX that I programmed to use as a phonebook and checking account balancer. I made a case for it that merged with my checkbook.
Then came pagers, cell phones, PDAs, and laptops. all of which had built in clocks. Cell phones and smart phones killed watches. Period. there is literally zero reason to wear a watch nowdays aside from bling and narcissism. everything has a clock built into it.
When I first started carrying a cell phone, I always picked out a model based on which had the best, easiest to read at a glance, clock, and the most resistant to heat and perspiration while in my shirtpocket. At the moment that happens to be the casio g’z one. I think the worst ever made by my metric was the motorola razor...although it was a perfect size and shape for a shirt pocket.
Miss the old keyboards no more! link
Now why do you s'pose the Feds ain't kicking down Amazon's doors....?
Except that what you wrote, the first time, was "table." A table, you see, is a piece of furniture like the other items listed.
It was a joke riffing on your typo. Lighten up, Frances.
Remember the first watches used LED’s that required you to press a button to see the time. I haven’t packed a watch since my Casio Data Bank watch with the phone dialer built in, died.
Just cell phone now. I started with the first Samsung Palm powered then their flip model came along. Those died and I switched to the iPhone, never looked back. In fact I don’t even need a phone anymore I just keep it for the clock {:-)
I can do it with a cable too... But why? Wireless is better and easier. Plus the AppleTV gives me a lot more options for other things.
You're overlooking something. The Kindle Fire has only 8GB of storage! There isn't room for OS, apps, music, books, games, and your whole movie collection. There's barely room for ONE DVD at 4.3 GB if you're carrying much of anything else. Any movies would have to be really low Rez and highly compressed. . . Or streaming, so not much content on the road... Sorry.
DVDs are loaded with extras and use MPEG2 compression, which isn't as efficient as H.264 and other modern codecs, so the 4.3GB figure isn't terribly useful.
iTunes movies run about 900MB an hour. Assuming that Amazon's compression is similar, the Fire would hold 3-4 movies with a fair amount of room for music and books; if more highly-compressed versions are available, you could squeeze more in. If you're traveling with kids, that's about as long as you could reasonably expect to go without stopping anyway, and it wouldn't be too hard to find WiFi at any well-populated highway exit and reload. It's not seamless, but neither is carrying around a ton of DVDs.
It wasn’t my joke. I just pointed it out since you apparently missed it. You’re welcome. I suppose I should have expected hostility, because your previous post was dripping with humorless, condescending earnestness.
You know, there are some very tasty decaffeinated brands out there. Just a thought.
Okay, so it wasn’t your joke. So, why not let the joker respond to my retorts, and why did you have to butt in?
Anyhow, my bad for not noticing.
However, you and the other poster must’ve, by now, seen how people can, sometimes in haste, misspell or create a typo, and that’s the only think I was pointing out tot he other poster. I’ve actually done the “table” vs “tablet” thing in other forums and other discussions, and I still haven’t seen a joke about the typo.
But, perhaps I’m being a bit too defensive and it wasn’t anything to make a big deal about. So, I’ll apologize and let it go.
the first digital watch maybe...not the first watch. IIRC, fred flintstone had a sundial on his wrist. I had a red LED watch when they first came out. They weren’t cheap to buy and they used *TWO* hearing aid batteries.
Has anyone got the Kindle Fire yet? If so, thoughts?
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