My Kindle Fire will be showing up sometime later today; I’m eager to see how this tablet will hold up. With limited functionality compared to the iPads and other full featured tablets, the Kindle Fire is really looking for its place in the market as an affordable (sub $200) digital hub (via Amazon’s cloud service) for all things digital purchased from Amazon.
Which brings up an interesting point. Last Sunday, Firefly Season 1 (Blu-ray) was the deal of the day. I was very tempted to purchase the collection for under $19, however I resisted temptation. Why? As part of my Prime subscription service, I can stream the entire series, in HD. So why make the physical purchase if I can stream for free? Of course there is something tangible about ‘owning’ and ‘collecting’ movies and games (at least for me); Prime and the Kindle Fire could change that perspective. As I said, it already did because I know I can start watching Firefly tonight. Actually I already could, but now I can on my semi tablet.
Everyone is wondering how much the Kindle Fire will cut into Apple’s market. I know from my vantage point, as a huge Amazon consumer, and a day one Prime subscriber, the Kindle Fire makes a ton of sense.
Whether fragmentation affects the Android platform to the point where it drives consumers to look elsewhere, the Kindle Fire by itself could present significant competition to the iPad this holiday season. Morgan analyst Douglas Anmuth has estimated that, based on channel checks with supply-chain vendors, Amazon could sell as many as 5 million Kindle Fire units in the fourth quarter of 2011.
But other analysts feel that the Kindle Fire will have a fainter impact. “In our view, Kindle Fire’s low price point speaks to how there is much lacking in the device,” J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote in a Sept. 30 research note, pushing back against his colleague’s rosy assertion. “At $199, we argue that the price point is not going to afford most users a tablet experience, which is a problem if Amazon wants to become a major tablet vendor.”
Without a camera or support for a 3G connection, and loaded with only 8GB of onboard storage, the Kindle Fire certainly lacks some hardware features in comparison with the iPad. However, its combination of lightning-fast browser and easy access to Amazon’s online storefront could nonetheless make it attractive to consumers looking for a media-consumption device.
So it is going to be interesting to see how (or even if it does) the Kindle Fire reshapes the tablet market.
I cannot wait to see what sort of statistics Amazon reveals have been collected via its Silk browser. Of course that is a pipe dream; they probably will not divulge the good stuff.
I think the size of the Kindle is better suited for carrying it around all the time and using it for things like GPS.
But the Kindle Fire doesn’t have GPS, or digital compass. It can’t really support “outside apps.” which use GPS, compass and camera, like the augmented reality apps.
So really, it’s for viewing Amazon content only. Kindle has the biggest selection of e-books but appears to have the most restrictive policies, so people hack that DRM or work around it. For video, it sounds like their selection is about the same as Netflix, which is not impressive at all. Of course the picture quality or viewing experience will be limited on that little screen unless it supports connecting up to a big HDTV like the other tablets (but the streamed video picture quality may not hold up on a big screen).
Fire might be of interest to people who root the device and install a different OS, so that they could load their own content (like ripped DVD or Blu Rays) and run a browser that doesn’t go through Amazon’s infrastructure. But the hardware limitations (limited storage , in addition to the lack of GPS, cameras, etc.) make this less attractive.
The Nook Tablet at $250 seems a better candidate for rooting but it also lacks a lot of hardware, though its specs are better.
I’m waiting for that “retina display” iPad but also could see a use for a smaller tablet which will also run the “outdoor” apps.
I get what you are saying, but I am in this boat:
I’ll write more comments later. So far, so pleased. For the price point, I am very happy with the Fire, but then again, I have been a Day One Prime subscriber and purchase everything and I really do mean pretty much everything, from Amazon.