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Amazon introduced yesterday a whole new range of Kindles, including its first crack into the tablet market with Kindle Fire (a.k.a the iPad killer).
The Kindle Fire
The tablet wars are heating up. While Apple's iPad tablet still dominates the platform with almost three-fourths of the global market share, some other companies are slowly catching up.
Manufacturers like Sony, HTC, Motorola, RIM and Samsung have released their own iteration of tablet computers. Now, enter Amazon's new Kindles to the fray. While the three latest Kindles remains true to its predecessor, the buzz now is all about the Kindle Fire. A 7-inch full touchscreen device with a gorilla glass coating, 1GHz TI OMAP dual-core CPU, 8GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM, and running on a customized version of Android OS that will have cloud access to movies, TV shows, music, books, apps, games, web browsing and more, for only... US$ 199, that's more than half the price of the cheapest iPad model and could be its most potent weapon to lure in consumers.
This is a major component that rival manufacturers failed to foresee as they've decided to go head to head with Apple's premium pricing without matching its contents. Amazon on the other hand decided to take a different route, with an extremely attractive price point while giving consumers access to its content store and more.
The Kindle Fire will be available on November 15, just in time for the holiday season. I don't know about you, but I'm really excited about this. The aggressive pricing could also shake up the whole tablet industry and we could see some feature packed tablets in the future at a much attractive price tag.
#This is not an iPad competitor —
squeeks2011-09-30 13:28
As mentioned above, this is a competitor to the Color Nook and other low cost tablets / eReaders. NOT THE IPAD! Amazon will be releasing a full fledged large tablet next year.
#RE: PoV: Can the Kindle Fire take down the iPad? —
wonno2011-09-30 13:34
The problem wont be the Apple lawsuit, but the Microsoft lawsuit. They've claimed that there has yet to be a tablet that infringes on their patents. Samsung is already paying $5 per smartphone unit to Microsoft.
Because of the performance boost, appearance, Kindle and Amazon name, the Fire is most likely going to cannibalize Nook Color sales. Overall this should change the face of the tablet market and all tablet prices may see a reduction in price to stay competitive. I would probably get one if it gets rooted for full marketplace support instead of being in a walled garden.
#RE: PoV: Can the Kindle Fire take down the iPad? —
bumble2011-09-30 16:00
nothing is gonna take down any apple product because they have a rabid fanbase. people should stop drawing the comparison and calling everything ipod/ipad killers.
#RE: PoV: Can the Kindle Fire take down the iPad? —
hardcorehead872011-09-30 18:30
"Now, enter Google's new Kindles to the fray." This is supposed to be Amazon's Kindle right? Runs a completely custom android with hardly any references to google.
#RE: PoV: Can the Kindle Fire take down the iPad? —
Mickle2011-10-01 10:07
Better have amazing build quality on it's side cos you can get dual core Android tabs with Hdmi, Bluetooth & all the other fixings for just over half that price, but i guess with the Amazon branding people are gonna pay for it anyway cos they feel safe buying it.
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This could most likely beat the Nook Color sales IF it has a better battery life, and, most importantly, run Android CM7.
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Because of the performance boost, appearance, Kindle and Amazon name, the Fire is most likely going to cannibalize Nook Color sales. Overall this should change the face of the tablet market and all tablet prices may see a reduction in price to stay competitive. I would probably get one if it gets rooted for full marketplace support instead of being in a walled garden.
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All tablets are stupid anyway and a waste of money.
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About as much as netbooks have taken down laptops.
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This is supposed to be Amazon's Kindle right?
Runs a completely custom android with hardly any references to google.
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