Data point from one of our users: you can actually buy the entire new ad-subsidized Kindle lineup for less than the cost of a 32GB iPad.
Data point from one of our users: you can actually buy the entire new ad-subsidized Kindle lineup for less than the cost of a 32GB iPad.
There's a special sensor. If you ever use it in the bathroom, the device becomes flagged and you won't be able to return it to the store.
if apple drops their price by 200bucks, they will be ok.
If price were the ‘be-all’ then there wouldn’t be a market for the Mac, the iPhone or the iPod. People will pay for a quality product, and a quality experience. Always have, always will.
Now, I do think the kFire will be a popular seller - and as Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray is saying today “not a true competitor, but a more competitive than expected” and “Amazon is likely losing $50 on each unit it sells”.
So, how much marketshare can Amazon afford to buy? Meanwhile, Apple is showing several hundred dollars of profit on each unit it sells (ifixyour.com estimates the BOM on the 64 Gig wi-fi iPad at less than $280; it retails for $599).
Upside-great functionality, great price, nice looking.
Downside - small screen (only 7 inch), 7.5hr batter-life with video playback; less with wi-fi.
One important difference is the kFire line-up is a media consuming (zero productivity) suite; while the iPad can perform both tasks.
A friend who is a huge Apple fan and always has been got an iPad a few months ago. He says it’s too big to really be much more portable than an apple laptop and really just good for entertainment type stuff. He doesn’t think it’s worth the money. I have to admit that 7” is a great size for portability while still getting movies and games at a good size and resolution. It’s a good portability “sweet spot”.
The article makes some very valid points about what features you are paying for vs what features you actually use.
BTTT
I like it. But unless I can get a 3g/4g version or I am able to use my USB 4g card, I can’t use it.
“Fully half of tablet users are streaming video. We’re also traveling with them like crazy”
Hence he misses the key point of the iPad: ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.
a HUGE mistake for leaving off the camera
I’ll read Walt Mossberg’s review before deciding.
Question: do these things require contracts (along with monthly fees) with wireless providers?
This is not a table; it’s a POS/cash machine in disguise.
This is not a tablet; it’s a POS/cash machine in disguise.
This is not a tablet; it’s a POS/cash machine in disguise.
A closed system? No thanks.
I can’t believe how many comments and harsh judgments on this and other similar threads are based on some silly and shallow political opinions. (I only used the word “political” as a generous gesture.) So you hate Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft? Facebook too, goes without saying. Yawn! How do you survive in this wicked world? There are plenty of reasons to hate your grocery supermarket, the oil company that produces your gasoline, the bagel bakery, Coca Cola, but yes, Pepsi as well, the dairy, the chicken factory, the vitamin maker, and your blood pressure medication Big Pharma manufacturer, among all others. Perhaps you’re terribly uninformed if you are not yet dissing and boycotting all those, and not starving yourself to death in protest. And don’t you hate Fruit of the Loom too? Do us all a favour, huh?!
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Valid point. However, these demographics will change as casual users discover other uses. That's already starting to happen, as professionals such as teachers, doctors, lawyers etc. are using iPads for business purposes.
I find my iPad extremely useful as a portable reference library for my woodworking, automotive and electronics hobbies. Instead of leafing thru hardbound books, I pull up relevant PDFs or training videos on my iPad, right next to whatever I'm working on whether in the garage or in an outside workshop. I used to rely on a microfiche reader for parts and reference lookup on my vintage car hobby. Now the entire microfiche is available on my iPad for ready reference, and grease doesn't bother the virtual keyboard.
I wish the lazy tech press would stop looking for an Apple “killer.” There isn’t one, and there’s unlikely to be one. None of the “iPhone killers” lived up to that title — but android phones have taken the larger share of the market collectively. I’d expect much the same thing with tablets.
What Amazon did was take all of the limitations people complained about with the original iPad, steer into the skid, and drop the price point to something no one (with the exception of unusable crap) can come close to matching. Too closed, no camera, no productivity apps, too little storage, no SD slot. Add to that no Bluetooth, no GPS, no cellular option, lower (no 720p) resolution, no video output.
The critique, largely unjustified, was that the iPad was only good for consuming content. The Fire embraces that. It is much more locked in to Amazon than the iPad is to Apple, for the strategic reason that Amazon is selling the tablet at a loss and counting on content sales to turn a profit.
Is this a successful strategy? Probably. It might make a bit of a dent in iPad sales numbers, but it’s fundamentally aiming at a different audience. Its (now hopelessly outclassed) competitors are the Nook Color, other e-readers, and — bear with me on this — those portable clamshell DVD players. This would be a killer device for entertaining kids in the back seat, and if you’re buying Amazon movies instead of DVDs, you can have your whole movie collection with you on vacation. Just pull into a truck stop with WiFi, and you can download another half-dozen movies and get back on the road.