As for being in the hands for Christmas, there is some truth to that depending on the circumstance but it's not the guarantee win that people make it out to be. What's the dominate tablet on the market? The iPad, of course. When was announced and demoed? Late January, 2010. When was it first sold? The WiFI version in early April, and then the WiFi+3G in late April. Now imagine if Apple decided to release it the previous November simply to make the Christmas rush and users had to wait a half a year for the SW (or worse, v2, for the HW to be right). I think it would have been a flop.
It's Apple of course it wouldn't have been a flop. Remember all those isheep that live on the iKoolAid etc.
iOS 3 was functional on the iPad. Not great sure but functional. And way better than Silk has been. Plus it had the very Parental Controls and password input that folks are screaming about now. In fact many folks were complaining about who iOS asks for the password 'too much' but when asked they would rather too much than too little or once then never again.
Apple released when they did due to a combo of factors like FCC approval, availability of parts and spreading their sales into what is typically a dead quarter. Something they repeated last year and likely will again this year (although perhaps toward the end of that quarter).
I'll make you a wager. How about a $25 gift card to an Apple Store. But how do we determine if it will flop or if it will be a success. A new model within a year? info about sales (something they typically don't do)? A new Kindle Fire size next year?
PS:Whatever happened to Pixel QI? That was suppose to be the great saviour for allowing longterm reading on eInk and outdoors, and allowing video playback with color as needed. I assume Amazon looked into it. I wonder what the problem was with that technology.
lol!
I'll go with what Spam said... bragging rights.
We won't know if it's selling well for a while yet... till then Amazon will say that sales are smooth.
. But with more than 10K of Free movies & TV shows for AMZ prime members, the Fire is a win for our family. And I suspect, their 2nd gen version will only get better.
By "free" I assume you mean "for $79/ year as Amazon Prime subscribers", correct?
Been using the Fire for about 2 weeks (prepping it for my wife). Mostly using it for the wonderful selection of FREE movies & TV (classic, camp & comedy for me). The on/off button issue is not an issue; external volume adjustment would be convenient but my Garmin GPS operates similarly. The wife will also enjoy reading magazines and books. The size factor is easy to carry around in a purse or jacket.
And the upcoming software tweaks will be welcome but even here, it's not a deal breaker. If Apple launches a 7 or 8" iPod, that would be interesting. But with more than 10K of Free movies & TV shows for AMZ prime members, the Fire is a win for our family. And I suspect, their 2nd gen version will only get better.
yeah it is wishful thinking to say it has failed... I have set up 4 so far (3 to use and one under the tree) for family - they use them to read books on the go (much better over iPad) and watch movies it does both those things well and fits in their bags.
At 200 this thing will sell. I have a galaxy Tab 7 from verizon for my subway ride - if not, I would have gotten one also.
I'm wagering it will have momentum to push it through the year. I'm sure there will be some slow down as the next iPad hits shelves but I don't see them as being real competitors due to their wide price points and capabilities.
Look at the first Kindle. It wasn't a great product and it cost $400 yet sold out in hours. It was US only and they were able to ride that device for a year-and-hald before the Kindle 2 came on the market. Jump to the Kindle Touch which is a great eReader, so even with these rushed-to-market products I think Amazon has a chance to make the Fire a popular device, and eventually a profitable device.
If Amazon's sales are indicative of an eventual economics of scale that could make each unit at least break even then I think we'll be hearing about a major update in January, and within 2012 a larger tablet that's even more full featured.
PS: Does Amazon have a proper SDK built for the Fire or are only letting select devs make 3rd-party apps at this time?
Fire uses the same sdk as android google sdk. Dev has to just submit their apps to amazon. You can now root the fire to get the apps fron android market.
It's Apple of course it wouldn't have been a flop. Remember all those isheep that live on the iKoolAid etc.
iOS 3 was functional on the iPad. Not great sure but functional. And way better than Silk has been.
Releasing the iPad with iOS 3.x for such a long time when iOS 4.x was released for all other devices was atypical for Apple, but my biggest issue was the buffer issue with Safari reloading pages even when switching between Safari pages. That was unacceptable and annoying to the point that I returned my first iPad. That said, the got the main UX down. The feel of the device felt natural. It wasn't janky. That is the complete opposite of the Fire at this time.
I remember a lot of people having a lot of complaints about the initial iPad, but as I recall there was a minor software update or two soon after launch that fixed some things, and then when ios 4 came to the device, everyone really started singing its praises.
Give Amazon 9 more months and see where this thing stands, these sisues will be in teh rear view mirror and the fire OS and system software will have been tuned optimized and debugged to a greater extent.
The initial launch wasnt perfect software wise, but it is more important for Amazon to have it in peoples hands at Christmas than to have perfect software at launch, and if the software update is availible by Christmas, no worries, all the new users will get teh new software when they fire the devices up so problem solved.
Some actor playing the roll of hippie who started some little fruit stand in Cupertino Ca once said "Great artists ship!"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandyf
Been using the Fire for about 2 weeks (prepping it for my wife). Mostly using it for the wonderful selection of FREE movies & TV (classic, camp & comedy for me). The on/off button issue is not an issue; external volume adjustment would be convenient but my Garmin GPS operates similarly. The wife will also enjoy reading magazines and books. The size factor is easy to carry around in a purse or jacket.
And the upcoming software tweaks will be welcome but even here, it's not a deal breaker. If Apple launches a 7 or 8" iPod, that would be interesting. But with more than 10K of Free movies & TV shows for AMZ prime members, the Fire is a win for our family. And I suspect, their 2nd gen version will only get better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by agramonte
yeah it is wishful thinking to say it has failed... I have set up 4 so far (3 to use and one under the tree) for family - they use them to read books on the go (much better over iPad) and watch movies it does both those things well and fits in their bags.
At 200 this thing will sell. I have a galaxy Tab 7 from verizon for my subway ride - if not, I would have gotten one also.
This ...thing brings us back to the old fashion mail order catalogue with an electronic user interface that links up instantaneously with a dispatching warehouse/service provider, an account quick invoiced/charged-over mechanism ...a patented and patently acclaimed whim-impulse capturing process, and a massive consumer data hoarding mechanism.
And Amazon gets away with charging 200$ for it, ...while having pundits cheering how little one has to pay nowadays to get one's consuming fate chained onto the catalogue of a monetizer of system-wide value erosion, ...of 'anything purchased ought to be priced as a minimum-value commodity'.
Come to think of it, it reminds me of the down payment one may wish to lay upon one's own death ground-laying procurement. It sort of seals the deal of a covert death wish with the discounted rot of fair-trade and enlightened-consumption decay.
Imagine that. You don't get $500 worth of goodness in a small, $200 machine that takes 15 hardware shortcuts using software written by a company who's never manufactured anything other than an e-reader - compared to a tablet made by a company with a slew of elegant iDevices designed for quality and best possible user experience under its belt.
Who coulda' saw this coming??
Seriously, these iPad killers are going down one after another faster than each next rising then falling Republican presidential great hope!
[PS: I'm not being pro- or anti-Republican here, but that is what's been happening both to all the "great (insert OS or 'OS fork' here) hope tablets" and those folks, LoLz...]
PPS: This doesn't mean word will get out in time to stop Amazon from selling a slew of these to the unwary and budget-minded - and likely getting a better 2nd Gen machine out there. Amazon is a marketing machine - and the Fire does work after a fashion - with most people having nothing to compare it to.
I don't recall the Fire ever being sold as an iPad killer. Why are people making the device out to be more than it is marketed to be?
My girlfriend got the low end monchrome kindle( what a piece of junk) from them clowns over at Best Brick, I mean Best Buy. Set up was a pain, and buying a book doesn't allow the user to be prompted with a second tier option that allows them to reconsider buying the product. You press pay and ch ching it goes. I hate that. To buy something I want to enter a code damnit!
And when the kindle is off the tablet displays advertising. What a joke!!
And it should be apparent that Amazon doesn't make those kindles. They buy them from an OEM
in China or Korea.
What's funny is that iBooks on iPod touch, iPhone or any Mac is a vastly superior experience than any of those kindles.
I don't want to be supporting eInk readers here but what you have to say is really ignorant of what these readers are.
Setup pain? What setup, you can copy books to your device the moment it is plugged in. Or get them from a library. The process is quite simple.
You don't have to buy books from Amazon. But if you do, then you can read them on your Kindle, iPad and iPod/iPhone. And the Kindle app remembers where you read as you switch between devices, pretty cool!
Kindles show advertizing only if you buy it at at the ad-subsidized price. Pay a bit more and you don't see ads.
I love my iPad but when I pop out for lunch, I bring my kindle. It fits nicely in a jacket pocket and light-weight. The iPad, not so much.
And it is nice to be able to read inside and out. Hopefully Apple will find a way in a future iPad to see the screen in bright light, but at this time this is a big limitation.
So, it is unfortunate that your girlfriend had a bad experience with her Kindle. Perhaps an iPad is a better choice for her needs. But for people that want a light-weight and convenient device to read books, the eInk devices (Kindle, etc) are a much better option.
I don't recall the Fire ever being sold as an iPad killer. Why are people making the device out to be more than it is marketed to be?
B/c Amazon is positioning it as a competitor to the iPad in their advertisements and if people equate the 2 as equal, those same people will assume the $200 product will slaughter the $500 one. They aren't even close to equal, but that is what marketing can do for you. It won't help w/all the returns of course
I like how this update makes no mention of fixing the problem where your kids can easily click and buy damn near anything b/c there are no parental controls. If you keep logged out, you can't make use of Prime streaming, which is one of the primary draws for many families.
There is a current workaround. You stay logged in, but deauthorize your CC. You can reauthorize it when you need to use it.
This whole thing is a stupid oversight on Amazon's part.
You'll see a reference to the iPad or Apple at least 5 times.
"Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle - same as an iPad"
"The Fire gives me the features I want at a price point that's less than half of the iPad 2."
"Amazon?s Kindle Fire is likely to be the first successful tablet not sold by Apple, and there
are several good reasons for it"
etc.etc.
If that aint marketing aimed directly at the iPad (ie. iPad killer) then I'll eat my iMac puck mouse.
Your argument is sound. Amazon is clearly trying to market this as a low-cost alternative to the iPad that makes the iPad appear overpriced. This is a good move with the long standing stigma that Apple products are expensive and thr you are just paying for a logo.
As for dkimak comment Amazon would never called it an "iPad killer" at not publically. That's something analysts, consumers and personally within Amazon might do, but never an exec or marketer in any official capacity without causing a lot of problems for themselves.
I remember a lot of people having a lot of complaints about the initial iPad, but as I recall there was a minor software update or two soon after launch that fixed some things, and then when ios 4 came to the device, everyone really started singing its praises.
Give Amazon 9 more months and see where this thing stands, these sisues will be in teh rear view mirror and the fire OS and system software will have been tuned optimized and debugged to a greater extent.
The initial launch wasnt perfect software wise, but it is more important for Amazon to have it in peoples hands at Christmas than to have perfect software at launch, and if the software update is availible by Christmas, no worries, all the new users will get teh new software when they fire the devices up so problem solved.
Some actor playing the roll of hippie who started some little fruit stand in Cupertino Ca once said "Great artists ship!"
I don't remember any complaints about the iPad after launch other than reviewers saying it will be a flop because of there not being a market for it. The iPad was one of Apple's best launches ever. Very few problems.
People can go into any Target and play with the Kindle Fire, the Kindle Touch, and various other tablets like the new Nooks. In my honest opinion, the Fire is the worst tablet out there. Some things it will never be able to fix in this current iteration. Currently, the GUI is poor, it runs sluggish, and it lacks features that it will never have because of a lack of cameras, microphone, and other sensors. Moreover, do not loss one because anybody can buy crap on it using your account information.
I don't remember any complaints about the iPad after launch other than reviewers saying it will be a flop because of there not being a market for it. The iPad was one of Apple's best launches ever. Very few problems.
The main complaints about the iPad at launch were the various features that were not in the first version (cameras, etc) and people saying there was no market for it to target.
I've never figured out all the complaining about the Kindle Fire. In the admittedly short time that I used the Fire, everything was smooth and it performed well. It's probably the best Android tablet on the market, even if it is using a proprietary interface.
Proprietary interface as opposed to what? It's a Kindle built on top of Android. If it lacked a proprietary interface, it would be just an Android tablet running the Kindle App.
The main complaints about the iPad at launch were the various features that were not in the first version (cameras, etc) and people saying there was no market for it to target.
No market for it? Don't think that was a valid complaint; I distinctly remember the iPad 1 selling very well.
No market for it? Don't think that was a valid complaint; I distinctly remember the iPad 1 selling very well.
That was the complaint. I knew the iPad would be a roaring success but I couldn't see how it would fit into my computing life since I use a 13" MBP and an iPhone. That leaves a small window of usage. I think most analysts and a lot of users just couldn't see how it could be a success if they couldn't find an initial need for it.
I know this is Apple Insider, but seriously?! The Apple-centric bias here is suffocating! You guys are worse than the Faux News Channel!
So it's not as good as an iPad. Big deal. It's a lot cheaper than an iPad, and it's plenty good for a large number of users. As an Amazon Prime member and as a "normal" person (i.e., not an Apple fanboy), the Fire makes a lot of sense to me.
My wife and I each have an iPhone 4, we have two iPods (including an old iPod touch), and we have a Mac mini. (Although our primary machines are Windows desktops and notebooks.) I like Apple products. I've coveted an iPad for several years. But they're just too expensive, they're not sufficiently more useful than my iPhone, and I've never purchased any audio or video from iTunes and have no desire to start. The Fire has its problems, as to be expected of a 1.0 device, but the pluses far outweigh the minuses for me. Evidently for a lot of other people, too.
It is The best-selling product on Amazon. In what universe does that make it a "failure"? I don't see an iPad in the top 100 of electronics. (However, there are a few iPod touches and the Apple TV in the top 10.) Is the Chevy Cruze a "failure" because it isn't a BMW? I don't see any BMWs on Forbes's list of the top-selling vehicles of 2011, but the Cruze is #9.
Like it or not, expect the Fire to be around for the long haul and attract significantly more purchasers than the iPad.
But who cares?! You have your iPad, and you like it. Good for you. Why do all you fanboys have this intrinsic need to look down your noses at anything without an Apple logo stamped on it? Seriously, you're like those morons in the Samsung ads. (Excellent ads, by the way!)
As it happens, I do drive a BMW. It matters to me not one whit that there are a lot more Cruze drivers out there.
Comments
Was that a deliberate reference to Apple stuff or did you not even realize it?
The difference is that with Apple stuff, overtaxed, downed servers are a sign of great success, proving the popularity of Apple products.
As for being in the hands for Christmas, there is some truth to that depending on the circumstance but it's not the guarantee win that people make it out to be. What's the dominate tablet on the market? The iPad, of course. When was announced and demoed? Late January, 2010. When was it first sold? The WiFI version in early April, and then the WiFi+3G in late April. Now imagine if Apple decided to release it the previous November simply to make the Christmas rush and users had to wait a half a year for the SW (or worse, v2, for the HW to be right). I think it would have been a flop.
It's Apple of course it wouldn't have been a flop. Remember all those isheep that live on the iKoolAid etc.
iOS 3 was functional on the iPad. Not great sure but functional. And way better than Silk has been. Plus it had the very Parental Controls and password input that folks are screaming about now. In fact many folks were complaining about who iOS asks for the password 'too much' but when asked they would rather too much than too little or once then never again.
Apple released when they did due to a combo of factors like FCC approval, availability of parts and spreading their sales into what is typically a dead quarter. Something they repeated last year and likely will again this year (although perhaps toward the end of that quarter).
I'll make you a wager. How about a $25 gift card to an Apple Store.
PS:Whatever happened to Pixel QI? That was suppose to be the great saviour for allowing longterm reading on eInk and outdoors, and allowing video playback with color as needed. I assume Amazon looked into it. I wonder what the problem was with that technology.
lol!
I'll go with what Spam said... bragging rights.
We won't know if it's selling well for a while yet... till then Amazon will say that sales are smooth.
. But with more than 10K of Free movies & TV shows for AMZ prime members, the Fire is a win for our family. And I suspect, their 2nd gen version will only get better.
By "free" I assume you mean "for $79/ year as Amazon Prime subscribers", correct?
Been using the Fire for about 2 weeks (prepping it for my wife). Mostly using it for the wonderful selection of FREE movies & TV (classic, camp & comedy for me). The on/off button issue is not an issue; external volume adjustment would be convenient but my Garmin GPS operates similarly. The wife will also enjoy reading magazines and books. The size factor is easy to carry around in a purse or jacket.
And the upcoming software tweaks will be welcome but even here, it's not a deal breaker. If Apple launches a 7 or 8" iPod, that would be interesting. But with more than 10K of Free movies & TV shows for AMZ prime members, the Fire is a win for our family. And I suspect, their 2nd gen version will only get better.
yeah it is wishful thinking to say it has failed... I have set up 4 so far (3 to use and one under the tree) for family - they use them to read books on the go (much better over iPad) and watch movies it does both those things well and fits in their bags.
At 200 this thing will sell. I have a galaxy Tab 7 from verizon for my subway ride - if not, I would have gotten one also.
I'm wagering it will have momentum to push it through the year. I'm sure there will be some slow down as the next iPad hits shelves but I don't see them as being real competitors due to their wide price points and capabilities.
Look at the first Kindle. It wasn't a great product and it cost $400 yet sold out in hours. It was US only and they were able to ride that device for a year-and-hald before the Kindle 2 came on the market. Jump to the Kindle Touch which is a great eReader, so even with these rushed-to-market products I think Amazon has a chance to make the Fire a popular device, and eventually a profitable device.
If Amazon's sales are indicative of an eventual economics of scale that could make each unit at least break even then I think we'll be hearing about a major update in January, and within 2012 a larger tablet that's even more full featured.
PS: Does Amazon have a proper SDK built for the Fire or are only letting select devs make 3rd-party apps at this time?
Fire uses the same sdk as android google sdk. Dev has to just submit their apps to amazon. You can now root the fire to get the apps fron android market.
It's Apple of course it wouldn't have been a flop. Remember all those isheep that live on the iKoolAid etc.
iOS 3 was functional on the iPad. Not great sure but functional. And way better than Silk has been.
Releasing the iPad with iOS 3.x for such a long time when iOS 4.x was released for all other devices was atypical for Apple, but my biggest issue was the buffer issue with Safari reloading pages even when switching between Safari pages. That was unacceptable and annoying to the point that I returned my first iPad. That said, the got the main UX down. The feel of the device felt natural. It wasn't janky. That is the complete opposite of the Fire at this time.
I remember a lot of people having a lot of complaints about the initial iPad, but as I recall there was a minor software update or two soon after launch that fixed some things, and then when ios 4 came to the device, everyone really started singing its praises.
Give Amazon 9 more months and see where this thing stands, these sisues will be in teh rear view mirror and the fire OS and system software will have been tuned optimized and debugged to a greater extent.
The initial launch wasnt perfect software wise, but it is more important for Amazon to have it in peoples hands at Christmas than to have perfect software at launch, and if the software update is availible by Christmas, no worries, all the new users will get teh new software when they fire the devices up so problem solved.
Some actor playing the roll of hippie who started some little fruit stand in Cupertino Ca once said "Great artists ship!"
Been using the Fire for about 2 weeks (prepping it for my wife). Mostly using it for the wonderful selection of FREE movies & TV (classic, camp & comedy for me). The on/off button issue is not an issue; external volume adjustment would be convenient but my Garmin GPS operates similarly. The wife will also enjoy reading magazines and books. The size factor is easy to carry around in a purse or jacket.
And the upcoming software tweaks will be welcome but even here, it's not a deal breaker. If Apple launches a 7 or 8" iPod, that would be interesting. But with more than 10K of Free movies & TV shows for AMZ prime members, the Fire is a win for our family. And I suspect, their 2nd gen version will only get better.
yeah it is wishful thinking to say it has failed... I have set up 4 so far (3 to use and one under the tree) for family - they use them to read books on the go (much better over iPad) and watch movies it does both those things well and fits in their bags.
At 200 this thing will sell. I have a galaxy Tab 7 from verizon for my subway ride - if not, I would have gotten one also.
This ...thing brings us back to the old fashion mail order catalogue with an electronic user interface that links up instantaneously with a dispatching warehouse/service provider, an account quick invoiced/charged-over mechanism ...a patented and patently acclaimed whim-impulse capturing process, and a massive consumer data hoarding mechanism.
And Amazon gets away with charging 200$ for it, ...while having pundits cheering how little one has to pay nowadays to get one's consuming fate chained onto the catalogue of a monetizer of system-wide value erosion, ...of 'anything purchased ought to be priced as a minimum-value commodity'.
Come to think of it, it reminds me of the down payment one may wish to lay upon one's own death ground-laying procurement. It sort of seals the deal of a covert death wish with the discounted rot of fair-trade and enlightened-consumption decay.
Imagine that. You don't get $500 worth of goodness in a small, $200 machine that takes 15 hardware shortcuts using software written by a company who's never manufactured anything other than an e-reader - compared to a tablet made by a company with a slew of elegant iDevices designed for quality and best possible user experience under its belt.
Who coulda' saw this coming??
Seriously, these iPad killers are going down one after another faster than each next rising then falling Republican presidential great hope! PPS: This doesn't mean word will get out in time to stop Amazon from selling a slew of these to the unwary and budget-minded - and likely getting a better 2nd Gen machine out there. Amazon is a marketing machine - and the Fire does work after a fashion - with most people having nothing to compare it to.
I don't recall the Fire ever being sold as an iPad killer. Why are people making the device out to be more than it is marketed to be?
Amazon an their whole Kindle is a joke to me.
My girlfriend got the low end monchrome kindle( what a piece of junk) from them clowns over at Best Brick, I mean Best Buy. Set up was a pain, and buying a book doesn't allow the user to be prompted with a second tier option that allows them to reconsider buying the product. You press pay and ch ching it goes. I hate that. To buy something I want to enter a code damnit!
And when the kindle is off the tablet displays advertising. What a joke!!
And it should be apparent that Amazon doesn't make those kindles. They buy them from an OEM
in China or Korea.
What's funny is that iBooks on iPod touch, iPhone or any Mac is a vastly superior experience than any of those kindles.
I don't want to be supporting eInk readers here but what you have to say is really ignorant of what these readers are.
Setup pain? What setup, you can copy books to your device the moment it is plugged in. Or get them from a library. The process is quite simple.
You don't have to buy books from Amazon. But if you do, then you can read them on your Kindle, iPad and iPod/iPhone. And the Kindle app remembers where you read as you switch between devices, pretty cool!
Kindles show advertizing only if you buy it at at the ad-subsidized price. Pay a bit more and you don't see ads.
I love my iPad but when I pop out for lunch, I bring my kindle. It fits nicely in a jacket pocket and light-weight. The iPad, not so much.
And it is nice to be able to read inside and out. Hopefully Apple will find a way in a future iPad to see the screen in bright light, but at this time this is a big limitation.
So, it is unfortunate that your girlfriend had a bad experience with her Kindle. Perhaps an iPad is a better choice for her needs. But for people that want a light-weight and convenient device to read books, the eInk devices (Kindle, etc) are a much better option.
I don't recall the Fire ever being sold as an iPad killer. Why are people making the device out to be more than it is marketed to be?
B/c Amazon is positioning it as a competitor to the iPad in their advertisements and if people equate the 2 as equal, those same people will assume the $200 product will slaughter the $500 one. They aren't even close to equal, but that is what marketing can do for you. It won't help w/all the returns of course
I like how this update makes no mention of fixing the problem where your kids can easily click and buy damn near anything b/c there are no parental controls. If you keep logged out, you can't make use of Prime streaming, which is one of the primary draws for many families.
There is a current workaround. You stay logged in, but deauthorize your CC. You can reauthorize it when you need to use it.
This whole thing is a stupid oversight on Amazon's part.
I don't recall the Fire ever being sold as an iPad killer. Why are people making the device out to be more than it is marketed to be?
Have a look on the Fire home page.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-Am.../dp/B0051VVOB2
You'll see a reference to the iPad or Apple at least 5 times.
"Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle - same as an iPad"
"The Fire gives me the features I want at a price point that's less than half of the iPad 2."
"Amazon’s Kindle Fire is likely to be the first successful tablet not sold by Apple, and there
are several good reasons for it"
etc.etc.
If that aint marketing aimed directly at the iPad (ie. iPad killer) then I'll eat my iMac puck mouse.
Have a look on the Fire home page.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-Am.../dp/B0051VVOB2
You'll see a reference to the iPad or Apple at least 5 times.
"Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle - same as an iPad"
"The Fire gives me the features I want at a price point that's less than half of the iPad 2."
"Amazon?s Kindle Fire is likely to be the first successful tablet not sold by Apple, and there
are several good reasons for it"
etc.etc.
If that aint marketing aimed directly at the iPad (ie. iPad killer) then I'll eat my iMac puck mouse.
Your argument is sound. Amazon is clearly trying to market this as a low-cost alternative to the iPad that makes the iPad appear overpriced. This is a good move with the long standing stigma that Apple products are expensive and thr you are just paying for a logo.
As for dkimak comment Amazon would never called it an "iPad killer" at not publically. That's something analysts, consumers and personally within Amazon might do, but never an exec or marketer in any official capacity without causing a lot of problems for themselves.
I remember a lot of people having a lot of complaints about the initial iPad, but as I recall there was a minor software update or two soon after launch that fixed some things, and then when ios 4 came to the device, everyone really started singing its praises.
Give Amazon 9 more months and see where this thing stands, these sisues will be in teh rear view mirror and the fire OS and system software will have been tuned optimized and debugged to a greater extent.
The initial launch wasnt perfect software wise, but it is more important for Amazon to have it in peoples hands at Christmas than to have perfect software at launch, and if the software update is availible by Christmas, no worries, all the new users will get teh new software when they fire the devices up so problem solved.
Some actor playing the roll of hippie who started some little fruit stand in Cupertino Ca once said "Great artists ship!"
I don't remember any complaints about the iPad after launch other than reviewers saying it will be a flop because of there not being a market for it. The iPad was one of Apple's best launches ever. Very few problems.
People can go into any Target and play with the Kindle Fire, the Kindle Touch, and various other tablets like the new Nooks. In my honest opinion, the Fire is the worst tablet out there. Some things it will never be able to fix in this current iteration. Currently, the GUI is poor, it runs sluggish, and it lacks features that it will never have because of a lack of cameras, microphone, and other sensors. Moreover, do not loss one because anybody can buy crap on it using your account information.
I don't remember any complaints about the iPad after launch other than reviewers saying it will be a flop because of there not being a market for it. The iPad was one of Apple's best launches ever. Very few problems.
The main complaints about the iPad at launch were the various features that were not in the first version (cameras, etc) and people saying there was no market for it to target.
I've never figured out all the complaining about the Kindle Fire. In the admittedly short time that I used the Fire, everything was smooth and it performed well. It's probably the best Android tablet on the market, even if it is using a proprietary interface.
Proprietary interface as opposed to what? It's a Kindle built on top of Android. If it lacked a proprietary interface, it would be just an Android tablet running the Kindle App.
The main complaints about the iPad at launch were the various features that were not in the first version (cameras, etc) and people saying there was no market for it to target.
No market for it? Don't think that was a valid complaint; I distinctly remember the iPad 1 selling very well.
No market for it? Don't think that was a valid complaint; I distinctly remember the iPad 1 selling very well.
That was the complaint. I knew the iPad would be a roaring success but I couldn't see how it would fit into my computing life since I use a 13" MBP and an iPhone. That leaves a small window of usage. I think most analysts and a lot of users just couldn't see how it could be a success if they couldn't find an initial need for it.
I know this is Apple Insider, but seriously?! The Apple-centric bias here is suffocating! You guys are worse than the Faux News Channel!
So it's not as good as an iPad. Big deal. It's a lot cheaper than an iPad, and it's plenty good for a large number of users. As an Amazon Prime member and as a "normal" person (i.e., not an Apple fanboy), the Fire makes a lot of sense to me.
My wife and I each have an iPhone 4, we have two iPods (including an old iPod touch), and we have a Mac mini. (Although our primary machines are Windows desktops and notebooks.) I like Apple products. I've coveted an iPad for several years. But they're just too expensive, they're not sufficiently more useful than my iPhone, and I've never purchased any audio or video from iTunes and have no desire to start. The Fire has its problems, as to be expected of a 1.0 device, but the pluses far outweigh the minuses for me. Evidently for a lot of other people, too.
It is The best-selling product on Amazon. In what universe does that make it a "failure"? I don't see an iPad in the top 100 of electronics. (However, there are a few iPod touches and the Apple TV in the top 10.) Is the Chevy Cruze a "failure" because it isn't a BMW? I don't see any BMWs on Forbes's list of the top-selling vehicles of 2011, but the Cruze is #9.
Like it or not, expect the Fire to be around for the long haul and attract significantly more purchasers than the iPad.
But who cares?! You have your iPad, and you like it. Good for you. Why do all you fanboys have this intrinsic need to look down your noses at anything without an Apple logo stamped on it? Seriously, you're like those morons in the Samsung ads. (Excellent ads, by the way!)
As it happens, I do drive a BMW. It matters to me not one whit that there are a lot more Cruze drivers out there.