The Fire certainly has built up some sales momentum. I wonder, however, if it will maintain it. I haven't read a single professional review that was anything more than lukewarm on using the device.
Nielsen is generally pretty accurate with his design studies. I remember his notes about some inconsistencies in various (then new) iPad Apps pretty much mirrored the real life experience of many of the people I knew using them.
The iPad had plenty of lukewarm reviews. They also had plenty of reviews saying how pointless the device was "when it's not even a real computer." Of course, these myopic people were wrong, but understand the foolish bar they held the iPad up to: Can it do exactly what my Mac/Win PC can do?
Regardless of how good the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet is for a $200 tablet it's now being held to iPad standard. That's expected, but it's not acceptable. From my experience I unequivocally state the Fire is not great for its market segment. There is plenty of room to improve in general user experience but all this can be handled with software updates.
We'll know in 6 months if Amazon or B&N did the right thing or if they made a mistake but as of right now I see no signs that call it either way.
Comments
The Fire certainly has built up some sales momentum. I wonder, however, if it will maintain it. I haven't read a single professional review that was anything more than lukewarm on using the device.
Nielsen is generally pretty accurate with his design studies. I remember his notes about some inconsistencies in various (then new) iPad Apps pretty much mirrored the real life experience of many of the people I knew using them.
The iPad had plenty of lukewarm reviews. They also had plenty of reviews saying how pointless the device was "when it's not even a real computer." Of course, these myopic people were wrong, but understand the foolish bar they held the iPad up to: Can it do exactly what my Mac/Win PC can do?
Regardless of how good the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet is for a $200 tablet it's now being held to iPad standard. That's expected, but it's not acceptable. From my experience I unequivocally state the Fire is not great for its market segment. There is plenty of room to improve in general user experience but all this can be handled with software updates.
We'll know in 6 months if Amazon or B&N did the right thing or if they made a mistake but as of right now I see no signs that call it either way.