I remember the IBM PCjr with its original 'chicklet' keyboard similar to the original Commodore - too nauseating for words.
So in reference to the "Kindle Fire" to the "iPad 2", I think that I am seeing much the same pattern. The Kindle is a successful product as is the iPad but I don't see the same for this junior tablet that draws from an enormously smaller "app workplace". In this horse race I will still ride the iPad although I am waiting for the iPad 3.
It won’t be long at all before Google launches one using Android. Microsoft has got to be very close (they are in the hardware biz with the x box already), but like Apple both will outsource to Taiwan or China anyway.
Amazon is and always will be a third tier player in this market. They make a big splash and say silly things like “The kindle is the #1 selling product Amazon has ever sold” - well OK, that’s because you can’t find 200,000 people who all buy the same other thing from you. It doesn’t mean you sold a lot of them in the grand scheme of things.
I am not a fan of Amazon for many reasons, but I won’t get into it now.