Nice spin. Maybe it has something to do with Kindle not being sold by Amazon on their online stores in the two countries outside North America and Europe where they operate - Japan and China.
It's advertised all over London. You can't go anywhere without seeing an Ad for the Kindle. So yes, it's on sale outside of the US, and being advertised heavily. I was told while I was there that it's advertised not only all over the UK, but in many places in Europe as well.
But it sells for much more there. Including VAT, before VAT went up to 20%, it was advertised for £139 for the WiFi only version. That's $229 here. That's a good reason why it isn't selling well. People here complain about the price of Macs in the UK, but some other devices have an even bigger mark-up.
This move was completely expected and should do well for Amazon.
They have the ecosystem and most of the content Apple does. Now lets see how they repackage Android apps to make their tablet the best option for Android users.
There is talk or Pixel Qi displays but from what Ive seen the color video simply won’t curt it on those panels so I think they’ll have to go with a proper high-viewing angle LCD.
Other than Google itself, Amazon is likely the only other company that would have a chance with this. None of the others have any ecosystem at all.
The Qi displays are REALLY bad. I've seen several at industry demo's. I don't know if anyone remembers the old LCD days before backlighting, when there were LCD's with a gold background, and a bluish color for the characters. The Qi displays remind me of those. The color is similar to the color of the characters of the old displays. The blue isn't much better, and the red and green are also somewhat metallic, or plastic appearing, and very undersaturated, while the background is darkish. It's difficult to describe exactly, but it's got a while to go, though the last version I saw a couple of months ago looked better than what I had seen last year.
is there something magical about my ipad 2 that i don't know about? ARM SoC, off the shelf GPU, screen ,etc
Perhaps you haven't read the reviews of the iPad 2, or those for the Xoom or Playbook. If you had, and please don't say that you have, because that would make what you say unbelievable, you would see that the iPad is the only current tablet that's working the way it should, and that it blows all these other tablets out of the water as far as performance goes.
The Tegra 2 chip, which was being touted as the best SoC this side of the universe before the iPad 2 was tested, has turned out to be a mediocre performer. Since all the current, and apparently, all the tablets coming out this summer, use this SoC, none of them will compare to the performance of the iPad 2.
If they have any brains, it will run Android. To create a whole new OS, and have to start up yet another pool of app developers from scratch would be expensive, time consuming and probably doomed to failure...
Regarding an ad-based Kindle....
Quote:
Originally Posted by MissionGrey
Oh god this sounds like death.
Can I get my next super thin LCD 3d tv for cheap if it always plays ads when im not watching movies??? Now that would make a classy house haha
I assume they're not going to stop selling the non-ad model (at the higher price.)
I seem to remember reading that in Asian countries, people are more inclined (compared to Americans) to accept discounted hardware that is ad-sponsored. But I think even for them, $25 won't be enough of a discount to make it worthwhile.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iVlad
So all of the sudden the LCD screen is ok in the sun for Amazon? lol they're too funny.
It's not like they have a choice. Digital paper is great for reading books, but it's worthless for anything more interactive, like running apps.
I would hope they'd do something like what Barnes & Noble did with their "nook" - offer a color LCD model (marketed as an app platform) and a digital-paper model (marketed strictly as a book reader.)
This guy was sitting next to me on the subway a few days ago and he was reading his kindle. That was the first time that I'd actually seen one up close and I wasn't that impressed to be honest. Maybe the kindle is good for using in sunlight, but inside a train, the screen didn't seem that great and it was kind of small. The keyboard on the bottom of the device seems kind of dumb and useless, since the purpose of the device is to read.
The Kindle can only do one thing, while the iPad can do a million different things. I'm not surprised that Amazon also wants to jump on the "me too" bandwagon and release their own real tablet just like every other copycat company out there.
No individual tablet released by anybody even deserves to be called a competitor, let alone an "iPad Killer". The only slaughtering and killing that is going on is by Apple and the list of victims will only grow bigger. Apple is going to have to expand the size of it's morgue. The tech press is like the boy who cried wolf, every week there's a new "iPad KIller", only to be forgotten a short time afterwards and replaced by the next contender.
The secret is to include a USB port and software that utilizes that port.
It can be an incredible diagnostic and creative piece of hardware then.
USB is an interesting question. A lot of iPads sell to businesses. It's been said that almost half the sales have been to business and governments around the world. In articles in Computerworld, Infoworld, Fortune, and some others, it seems that one of the things they like about the iPad, for security, is the LACK of a full spec USB port. USB ports are considered, with the growth of USB sticks, to be the biggest threat to physical data security. I know that it can be said that people could just steal the iPad, it being so small and lightweight and all. But data thieves, especially those who are working in a company, don't want to take the item, they just want to take the data. It's harder to figure out who may have done that. It's also much less likely that the theft will be noticed than if the device is missing.
It's advertised all over London. You can't go anywhere without seeing an Ad for the Kindle. So yes, it's on sale outside of the US, and being advertised heavily. I was told while I was there that it's advertised not only all over the UK, but in many places in Europe as well.
But it sells for much more there. Including VAT, before VAT went up to 20%, it was advertised for £139 for the WiFi only version. That's $229 here. That's a good reason why it isn't selling well. People here complain about the price of Macs in the UK, but some other devices have an even bigger mark-up.
Maybe you need to read the article and my comment again. AI tried to claim that Kindle isn't selling well outside of Europe and North America, but didn't mention that it isn't actually officially on sale there.
It's £111 in the UK, just in case you were wondering. Before the VAT increase it was £109.
Maybe you need to read the article and my comment again. AI tried to claim that Kindle isn't selling well outside of Europe and North America, but didn't mention that it isn't actually officially on sale there.
It's £111 in the UK, just in case you were wondering. Before the VAT increase it was £109.
Then it's dropped in price a good deal since the summer, because it wasn't selling well as I was told when last there.
I know what the article said. I was commenting that the price there is too high, and wasn't selling so well there either. Even with that new lower price, it's still too high. Is that the Ad supported version, or the regular one? It still comes out to $188. Way too high for what it is.
Then it's dropped in price a good deal since the summer, because it wasn't selling well as I was told when last there.
In that case, I don't know where you were shopping while you were here. The only Kindle device that has been on sale here (without ordering from Amazon.com and having it shipped from the USA) is Kindle 3 and it was always £109, rising to £111 with the VAT increase.
They haven't released the ad-supported version here at all.
What is it going to take for one of these "iPad Killers" to gain traction? Is it all about the ecosystem? Is the only thing that will chip away at Apple's market share going to be a whole bunch of different companies selling a low volume of mediocre devices......purchased solely by Apple haters/open OS lovers?
In that case, I don't know where you were shopping while you were here. The only Kindle device that has been on sale here (without ordering from Amazon.com and having it shipped from the USA) is Kindle 3 and it was always £109, rising to £111 with the VAT increase.
They haven't released the ad-supported version here at all.
No, it was not. It was £139. I saw that plastered all over the Underground, the busses, and just about everywhere else. I asked some people I was with, and they said it wasn't selling too well, and that the price was well over what they would pay for it. I've noted that price right after I got back, on these forums in some discussions. I don't know where you got that price from.
amazon actually gets retail and customers. i see A LOT of kindles in NYC
Yes. (Less likely to get stolen on a subway than an iPad I suppose.)
I could really see B&N and Amazon cleaning up at the low end of the tablet market. That wouldn't hurt Apple much, since they don't want to make Kindle-level products anyway. And I could see people getting their feet wet on the lowest-end Kindle, then moving up to an iPad somewhere down the road. I don't think the old Kindle or Nook (or whatever's coming) gets tossed at that point, either, as long as it functions.
No, it was not. It was £139. I saw that plastered all over the Underground, the busses, and just about everywhere else. I asked some people I was with, and they said it wasn't selling too well, and that the price was well over what they would pay for it. I've noted that price right after I got back, on these forums in some discussions. I don't know where you got that price from.
Amazon press release from last summer showing £109 price. It was $139 in the USA.
I'm surprised that your friends were able to give such a definitive answer about sales last summer, given that it only went on sale in late August.
Companies wanting a piece of the iPad pie and lamely producing sub-iPad tablets that are nothing more than cheap lower quality copies are not " competition". They are leeches. They bring nothing new in the experience, the ecosystem, the hardware or the tablets outlook for the future.
No matter how you spin it Amazon, B&N and almost ALL OTHER tablets bring NOTHING new or better.
Amen to that!
I can't wait to start a small business using the ipad and the iphone. Those two devices have created a tech paradigm shift we haven't seen since the invention of the automobile.
If Amazon makes a tablet it will likely be smaller, get relatively worse battery life and if they don't skin it or fork it, will have that horrible Honeycomb UI. I say "horrible" because it will be given the fact that Amazon's main customer base for Kindle is seniors who don't understand computers, don't want to, and don't want to "manage their widgets" at all. It will also be heavier and more expensive than the previous Kindle.
This is a fact? I've never seen a senior use one. I do see lots on my commute though.
I don't think Amazon will launch an Andriod tablet under the 'Kindle' brand. E-readers and tablets are different things with a different purpose (as if the price isn't a big enough clue).
Proud Kindle 3 owner and and definitely interested in buying one of these things if it has duel lcd/eink capability. I originally thought I would do all my future reading through iBooks but (other than the poor selection) sometimes I just want to tune your eyes away from LCD screens all day heh.
For what it's with I was in a China recently and a friend there said they don't sell the Kindle in China, she didnt know what it was. I showed her a photo from google and told her what it does, she said it would never sell in China. Reason is people in China dont want a device for only reading, they want something like an iPad for games, Internet, apps, video, etc. Chinese in her opinion dont like to read like that (Kindle). That's why the iPad will succeed there (games, apps, etc.). This goes along with the article saying the kindle has weak to no sales outside of USA and Europe. I also went to Japan and never saw a kindle not sure if it's sold there, but I never seen one. IMO many Asians love Apple and this Kindle will fail there (although I did see quite a fee Android phones and Android posters in Japan).
Amazon press release from last summer showing £109 price. It was $139 in the USA.
I'm surprised that your friends were able to give such a definitive answer about sales last summer, given that it only went on sale in late August.
I was there, my friend. Summer ends in September. It was £139. I even remarked to my wife when I was there how odd that it was the same price there in pounds as it was here in dollars. I don't know what the discrepancy is, but I remember it pretty well, as I saw it all over.
Comments
It can be an incredible diagnostic and creative piece of hardware then.
Nice spin. Maybe it has something to do with Kindle not being sold by Amazon on their online stores in the two countries outside North America and Europe where they operate - Japan and China.
It's advertised all over London. You can't go anywhere without seeing an Ad for the Kindle. So yes, it's on sale outside of the US, and being advertised heavily. I was told while I was there that it's advertised not only all over the UK, but in many places in Europe as well.
But it sells for much more there. Including VAT, before VAT went up to 20%, it was advertised for £139 for the WiFi only version. That's $229 here. That's a good reason why it isn't selling well. People here complain about the price of Macs in the UK, but some other devices have an even bigger mark-up.
This move was completely expected and should do well for Amazon.
They have the ecosystem and most of the content Apple does. Now lets see how they repackage Android apps to make their tablet the best option for Android users.
There is talk or Pixel Qi displays but from what Ive seen the color video simply won’t curt it on those panels so I think they’ll have to go with a proper high-viewing angle LCD.
Other than Google itself, Amazon is likely the only other company that would have a chance with this. None of the others have any ecosystem at all.
The Qi displays are REALLY bad. I've seen several at industry demo's. I don't know if anyone remembers the old LCD days before backlighting, when there were LCD's with a gold background, and a bluish color for the characters. The Qi displays remind me of those. The color is similar to the color of the characters of the old displays. The blue isn't much better, and the red and green are also somewhat metallic, or plastic appearing, and very undersaturated, while the background is darkish. It's difficult to describe exactly, but it's got a while to go, though the last version I saw a couple of months ago looked better than what I had seen last year.
what do you expect?
internet, email, apps, ebook reader
is there something magical about my ipad 2 that i don't know about? ARM SoC, off the shelf GPU, screen ,etc
Perhaps you haven't read the reviews of the iPad 2, or those for the Xoom or Playbook. If you had, and please don't say that you have, because that would make what you say unbelievable, you would see that the iPad is the only current tablet that's working the way it should, and that it blows all these other tablets out of the water as far as performance goes.
The Tegra 2 chip, which was being touted as the best SoC this side of the universe before the iPad 2 was tested, has turned out to be a mediocre performer. Since all the current, and apparently, all the tablets coming out this summer, use this SoC, none of them will compare to the performance of the iPad 2.
Regarding an ad-based Kindle....
Oh god this sounds like death.
Can I get my next super thin LCD 3d tv for cheap if it always plays ads when im not watching movies??? Now that would make a classy house haha
I assume they're not going to stop selling the non-ad model (at the higher price.)
I seem to remember reading that in Asian countries, people are more inclined (compared to Americans) to accept discounted hardware that is ad-sponsored. But I think even for them, $25 won't be enough of a discount to make it worthwhile.
So all of the sudden the LCD screen is ok in the sun for Amazon? lol they're too funny.
It's not like they have a choice. Digital paper is great for reading books, but it's worthless for anything more interactive, like running apps.
I would hope they'd do something like what Barnes & Noble did with their "nook" - offer a color LCD model (marketed as an app platform) and a digital-paper model (marketed strictly as a book reader.)
The Kindle can only do one thing, while the iPad can do a million different things. I'm not surprised that Amazon also wants to jump on the "me too" bandwagon and release their own real tablet just like every other copycat company out there.
No individual tablet released by anybody even deserves to be called a competitor, let alone an "iPad Killer". The only slaughtering and killing that is going on is by Apple and the list of victims will only grow bigger. Apple is going to have to expand the size of it's morgue. The tech press is like the boy who cried wolf, every week there's a new "iPad KIller", only to be forgotten a short time afterwards and replaced by the next contender.
The secret is to include a USB port and software that utilizes that port.
It can be an incredible diagnostic and creative piece of hardware then.
USB is an interesting question. A lot of iPads sell to businesses. It's been said that almost half the sales have been to business and governments around the world. In articles in Computerworld, Infoworld, Fortune, and some others, it seems that one of the things they like about the iPad, for security, is the LACK of a full spec USB port. USB ports are considered, with the growth of USB sticks, to be the biggest threat to physical data security. I know that it can be said that people could just steal the iPad, it being so small and lightweight and all. But data thieves, especially those who are working in a company, don't want to take the item, they just want to take the data. It's harder to figure out who may have done that. It's also much less likely that the theft will be noticed than if the device is missing.
It's advertised all over London. You can't go anywhere without seeing an Ad for the Kindle. So yes, it's on sale outside of the US, and being advertised heavily. I was told while I was there that it's advertised not only all over the UK, but in many places in Europe as well.
But it sells for much more there. Including VAT, before VAT went up to 20%, it was advertised for £139 for the WiFi only version. That's $229 here. That's a good reason why it isn't selling well. People here complain about the price of Macs in the UK, but some other devices have an even bigger mark-up.
Maybe you need to read the article and my comment again. AI tried to claim that Kindle isn't selling well outside of Europe and North America, but didn't mention that it isn't actually officially on sale there.
It's £111 in the UK, just in case you were wondering. Before the VAT increase it was £109.
Maybe you need to read the article and my comment again. AI tried to claim that Kindle isn't selling well outside of Europe and North America, but didn't mention that it isn't actually officially on sale there.
It's £111 in the UK, just in case you were wondering. Before the VAT increase it was £109.
Then it's dropped in price a good deal since the summer, because it wasn't selling well as I was told when last there.
I know what the article said. I was commenting that the price there is too high, and wasn't selling so well there either. Even with that new lower price, it's still too high. Is that the Ad supported version, or the regular one? It still comes out to $188. Way too high for what it is.
Then it's dropped in price a good deal since the summer, because it wasn't selling well as I was told when last there.
In that case, I don't know where you were shopping while you were here. The only Kindle device that has been on sale here (without ordering from Amazon.com and having it shipped from the USA) is Kindle 3 and it was always £109, rising to £111 with the VAT increase.
They haven't released the ad-supported version here at all.
In that case, I don't know where you were shopping while you were here. The only Kindle device that has been on sale here (without ordering from Amazon.com and having it shipped from the USA) is Kindle 3 and it was always £109, rising to £111 with the VAT increase.
They haven't released the ad-supported version here at all.
No, it was not. It was £139. I saw that plastered all over the Underground, the busses, and just about everywhere else. I asked some people I was with, and they said it wasn't selling too well, and that the price was well over what they would pay for it. I've noted that price right after I got back, on these forums in some discussions. I don't know where you got that price from.
amazon actually gets retail and customers. i see A LOT of kindles in NYC
Yes. (Less likely to get stolen on a subway than an iPad I suppose.)
I could really see B&N and Amazon cleaning up at the low end of the tablet market. That wouldn't hurt Apple much, since they don't want to make Kindle-level products anyway. And I could see people getting their feet wet on the lowest-end Kindle, then moving up to an iPad somewhere down the road. I don't think the old Kindle or Nook (or whatever's coming) gets tossed at that point, either, as long as it functions.
More choice for the consumer.
No, it was not. It was £139. I saw that plastered all over the Underground, the busses, and just about everywhere else. I asked some people I was with, and they said it wasn't selling too well, and that the price was well over what they would pay for it. I've noted that price right after I got back, on these forums in some discussions. I don't know where you got that price from.
Amazon press release from last summer showing £109 price. It was $139 in the USA.
I'm surprised that your friends were able to give such a definitive answer about sales last summer, given that it only went on sale in late August.
Companies wanting a piece of the iPad pie and lamely producing sub-iPad tablets that are nothing more than cheap lower quality copies are not " competition". They are leeches. They bring nothing new in the experience, the ecosystem, the hardware or the tablets outlook for the future.
No matter how you spin it Amazon, B&N and almost ALL OTHER tablets bring NOTHING new or better.
Amen to that!
I can't wait to start a small business using the ipad and the iphone. Those two devices have created a tech paradigm shift we haven't seen since the invention of the automobile.
If Amazon makes a tablet it will likely be smaller, get relatively worse battery life and if they don't skin it or fork it, will have that horrible Honeycomb UI. I say "horrible" because it will be given the fact that Amazon's main customer base for Kindle is seniors who don't understand computers, don't want to, and don't want to "manage their widgets" at all. It will also be heavier and more expensive than the previous Kindle.
This is a fact? I've never seen a senior use one. I do see lots on my commute though.
I don't think Amazon will launch an Andriod tablet under the 'Kindle' brand. E-readers and tablets are different things with a different purpose (as if the price isn't a big enough clue).
Oh god this sounds like death.
Can I get my next super thin LCD 3d tv for cheap if it always plays ads when im not watching movies??? Now that would make a classy house haha
Good job writting about what you don't understand. The ads do not appear while you are reading. haha.
Amazon press release from last summer showing £109 price. It was $139 in the USA.
I'm surprised that your friends were able to give such a definitive answer about sales last summer, given that it only went on sale in late August.
I was there, my friend. Summer ends in September. It was £139. I even remarked to my wife when I was there how odd that it was the same price there in pounds as it was here in dollars. I don't know what the discrepancy is, but I remember it pretty well, as I saw it all over.