For what it is worth, I think the Fire will sell well. However, the way I see it, the market for tablets will grow. That means that people who can and want to buy an iPad will still buy one and people who can't or won't buy an iPad will go for the Fire. That means the market will grow and the only thing that may start falling is iPad's percentage in the market. That won't mean that they are selling less - they could very well be selling more, but with the Fire releasing, people who feel the iPad is out of their budget may opt to buy the Fire. So maybe the iPad's percentage will drop from 90% to 80%, but they will still hold a major portion of the market and continue to sell record numbers for the forseeable future.
I am happy being an Amazon customer (in my experience their customer service is exceptional), but I wouldn't buy the Fire. I have the iPad and for me the only tablet I would buy would be the next iPad model.
I am not sure if competition directly affects Apple products or whether they march at their own pace, so I have no opinion about competition being good for the iPad.
The only way the Kindle Fire is useful is if you purchase something for it. Like an arcade machine. So it stands that it should turn a profit, providing the user experience is compelling enough for people to actually want to use them after purchase.
Don't think it will Fragment Android in the way everyone thinks - it's a fork. The OS it's running is actually irrelevant. I see the iPad is more useful, but isn't this due to apps more than hardware - I haven't found myself using three/four finger multitouch for apps (only for the new gestures) although the gyro is useful. But what's to stop Quick Office (or some other company) from releasing their software on the Amazon App market.
I think the Fire will sell well enough. Definitely not iPad numbers.
I don't think that something that is smaller than some people's penis size even qualifies to be designated a tablet.
Jeez...by that measure I feel sorry for the guys who CAN call the new iPod Nano a "tablet" and hats off to dudes who COULD NOT call the iPad with its 9.7" screen a "tablet".
But he also understand that it's targeted to a totally different audience that weren't likely to buy an iPad anyway. So the iPad numbers will stay stable even while this thing perhaps sells and doesn't get returned in droves like some of the others. Thus he's not really worried.
That's really not necessarily true. I'm an Apple guy to the core - been a Mac user since the Iici, bought myself a Mac Mini to replace the crappy HP Windows laptop my company gave me, and have used an iPhone since the 3G. I'd been planning on buying an iPad until Amazon announced the Fire. It does everything I've been looking for in a tablet (primarily reading books and magazines, and playing video content) and will save me $300.
That's one iPad buyer who will almost certainly buy a Kindle Fire instead. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
What is significant is not that the Kindle forks the Android OS technically.
it's that it fragments Google's Android ecosystem practically.
ecosystems are the real "platforms" of the future, not the OS's running underneath them on hardware, nor the cloud servers running above them on the web. sure, you need those, but consumers will just see the fully integrated results throughout their everyday lives, unified by some top level front end UI that stretches across everything.
Apple got there first with hardware and software of course, now adding a lot of cloud, tho there is still much left to do. and Mango is MS' mostly software version of the same idea, if they can pull it off.
Google got to the cloud version first. but that is an easier place to start. so now Amazon has ripped off Android from them - hey, it's open! - and is setting up its own rival cloud ecosystem. all Amazon needs to do to complete totally is buy Yahoo ...
and Amazon probably won't be the last. Sony is trying to put an ecosystem together the Apple way, starting with all its hardware - PSP, PS3, HDTV's and many other components/accessories. but its fatal weakness has always been depending on someone else's OS - MS Windows for computers, and Google's Android for smartphones - to run it. you can never integrate that mish mash seamlessly with your own stuff. now that it has bought out Ericcson, Sony could finally pursue an independent smartphone OS of its own, likely another "fork" of Android, that could be used with all its products.
I actually hope Kindle fragments Android. Somebody besides Apple has to give Google competition, and Amazon, with it's well-rounded content ecosystem should provide a better tablet for consumption than your average Honeyclone tablet. The competitive edge that Kindle Fire has isn't that it uses Android, but that it is a Kindle.
Interesting, I've never heard the average Android consumer complaining about fragmentation, yet fragmentation will be the driving force for consumers to pay 2.5x the price for the iPad.
I could think of a dozen other good reasons (for certain needs) to pay more for an iPad, but I would have never guessed fragmentation.
Interesting, I've never heard the average Android consumer complaining about fragmentation, yet fragmentation will be the driving force for consumers to pay 2.5x the price for the iPad.
I could think of a dozen other good reasons (for certain needs) to pay more for an iPad, but I would have never guessed fragmentation.
customers aren't techies. they don't know the word "fragmentation." they just know their own "frustration" when they can't get updates to their still-under-contract phone that fix its issues and enable the neat new stuff they hear about in ads but can't do themselves.
or when they learn that much-hyped Android tab they bought ealier this year won't get any updates at all. Ginger-what? Honey-who?
Comments
I am happy being an Amazon customer (in my experience their customer service is exceptional), but I wouldn't buy the Fire. I have the iPad and for me the only tablet I would buy would be the next iPad model.
I am not sure if competition directly affects Apple products or whether they march at their own pace, so I have no opinion about competition being good for the iPad.
Don't think it will Fragment Android in the way everyone thinks - it's a fork. The OS it's running is actually irrelevant. I see the iPad is more useful, but isn't this due to apps more than hardware - I haven't found myself using three/four finger multitouch for apps (only for the new gestures) although the gyro is useful. But what's to stop Quick Office (or some other company) from releasing their software on the Amazon App market.
I think the Fire will sell well enough. Definitely not iPad numbers.
I don't think that something that is smaller than some people's penis size even qualifies to be designated a tablet.
Jeez...by that measure I feel sorry for the guys who CAN call the new iPod Nano a "tablet" and hats off to dudes who COULD NOT call the iPad with its 9.7" screen a "tablet".
...
1) I'll never understand the capitalization of Mac to MAC.
...
I think it has something to do with PC.
But he also understand that it's targeted to a totally different audience that weren't likely to buy an iPad anyway. So the iPad numbers will stay stable even while this thing perhaps sells and doesn't get returned in droves like some of the others. Thus he's not really worried.
That's really not necessarily true. I'm an Apple guy to the core - been a Mac user since the Iici, bought myself a Mac Mini to replace the crappy HP Windows laptop my company gave me, and have used an iPhone since the 3G. I'd been planning on buying an iPad until Amazon announced the Fire. It does everything I've been looking for in a tablet (primarily reading books and magazines, and playing video content) and will save me $300.
That's one iPad buyer who will almost certainly buy a Kindle Fire instead. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
it's that it fragments Google's Android ecosystem practically.
ecosystems are the real "platforms" of the future, not the OS's running underneath them on hardware, nor the cloud servers running above them on the web. sure, you need those, but consumers will just see the fully integrated results throughout their everyday lives, unified by some top level front end UI that stretches across everything.
Apple got there first with hardware and software of course, now adding a lot of cloud, tho there is still much left to do. and Mango is MS' mostly software version of the same idea, if they can pull it off.
Google got to the cloud version first. but that is an easier place to start. so now Amazon has ripped off Android from them - hey, it's open! - and is setting up its own rival cloud ecosystem. all Amazon needs to do to complete totally is buy Yahoo ...
and Amazon probably won't be the last. Sony is trying to put an ecosystem together the Apple way, starting with all its hardware - PSP, PS3, HDTV's and many other components/accessories. but its fatal weakness has always been depending on someone else's OS - MS Windows for computers, and Google's Android for smartphones - to run it. you can never integrate that mish mash seamlessly with your own stuff. now that it has bought out Ericcson, Sony could finally pursue an independent smartphone OS of its own, likely another "fork" of Android, that could be used with all its products.
And then Samsung, and then ...
I could think of a dozen other good reasons (for certain needs) to pay more for an iPad, but I would have never guessed fragmentation.
Interesting, I've never heard the average Android consumer complaining about fragmentation, yet fragmentation will be the driving force for consumers to pay 2.5x the price for the iPad.
I could think of a dozen other good reasons (for certain needs) to pay more for an iPad, but I would have never guessed fragmentation.
customers aren't techies. they don't know the word "fragmentation." they just know their own "frustration" when they can't get updates to their still-under-contract phone that fix its issues and enable the neat new stuff they hear about in ads but can't do themselves.
or when they learn that much-hyped Android tab they bought ealier this year won't get any updates at all. Ginger-what? Honey-who?
fragmentation = frustration.