Walt Mossberg reviews the Kindle Fire
Walt Mossberg takes a look at Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet. How does it stack up against the iPad and the new Nook Color? Pretty well. But this thing is more like a Nook, but not an iPad. It’s not in the same league at all with the iPad. Is that a bad thing? No. Take a look at what Mossberg says.
See also:
- AppleInsider | Amazon ramps up Kindle Fire production to 5 million units in 2011
- Amazon Kindle Fire review – Engadget
- Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think | Magazine
To buy the Kindle Fire, click here.
Obvious the main purpose of this post is to generate royalties from Amazon…
Thanks for mentioning that. I forgot to put the referral code in which I will do now. Obviously, this post isn’t to generate royalties.
Obvious the main purpose of this post is to generate royalties from Amazon…
Thanks for mentioning that. I forgot to put the referral code in which I will do now. Obviously, this post isn’t to generate royalties.
To Guest : Edward frequently posts tech related stuff on his site, from products to forecasts on how the mobile phone market might evolve (btw Edward, I still think your writings on the mobile market and the ebook reader market were some of your best writings!).
That aside, I played around with the Kindle Fire today at Best Buy – as I’m in the market for a tablet. It’s nice, but….it is no iPad killer. I need a more flexible and powerful tablet (plus one that is larger), plus 3/4G connectivity, so the Kindle Fire doesn’t appeal to me.
From Amazon’s perspective, though, it certainly is a winning product. Get millions of these tablets out into people’s hands (most of whom do nothing more with their tablets than play games and check email), and those people will buy gobs of content from Amazon – essentially cementing Amazon’s relationship with millions and millions of customers. All for the price of a loss of $10 per Kindle Fire sold.
For pure eBook reading, I also think the regular Kindle (I plan to get the Kindle Touch over xmas) is way nicer than the Kindle Fire. ePaper is far superior to LCD screens for reading books over many hours.
To Guest : Edward frequently posts tech related stuff on his site, from products to forecasts on how the mobile phone market might evolve (btw Edward, I still think your writings on the mobile market and the ebook reader market were some of your best writings!).
That aside, I played around with the Kindle Fire today at Best Buy – as I’m in the market for a tablet. It’s nice, but….it is no iPad killer. I need a more flexible and powerful tablet (plus one that is larger), plus 3/4G connectivity, so the Kindle Fire doesn’t appeal to me.
From Amazon’s perspective, though, it certainly is a winning product. Get millions of these tablets out into people’s hands (most of whom do nothing more with their tablets than play games and check email), and those people will buy gobs of content from Amazon – essentially cementing Amazon’s relationship with millions and millions of customers. All for the price of a loss of $10 per Kindle Fire sold.
For pure eBook reading, I also think the regular Kindle (I plan to get the Kindle Touch over xmas) is way nicer than the Kindle Fire. ePaper is far superior to LCD screens for reading books over many hours.
Kindle Fire is a bit of a fail for me. The Kindle is great for reading e-books, however it’s useless for reading PDFs. Why? Because its just too small. The same applies to the Fire, in fact I would think it’s even too small to read some of the fancy magazine you can subscribe to. No I’m still waiting for a decently priced 10 inch tablet, and no I wouldn’t go near anything sold by Apple with a barge poll – beautiful but completely walled gardens aren’t my thing.
Kindle Fire is a bit of a fail for me. The Kindle is great for reading e-books, however it’s useless for reading PDFs. Why? Because its just too small. The same applies to the Fire, in fact I would think it’s even too small to read some of the fancy magazine you can subscribe to. No I’m still waiting for a decently priced 10 inch tablet, and no I wouldn’t go near anything sold by Apple with a barge poll – beautiful but completely walled gardens aren’t my thing.
The Kindle Fire is no iPad killer. It might kill off many of the other Tablets out there. Though the iPad is safe for now. The Kindle had a niche which was very good for its market. As an e-reader it is the leader, though the Kindle Fire is not an e-reader. If the technology for a colour e-ink screen was available then as a colour e-reader it would sweep the field. The Fire as it stands is just another tablet. Apple have nothing to fear from it. Though every other tablet manufacturer does.
Agree. It will be a huge negative for Barnes and Noble though. Unless you are already in the Nook vortex, why would you get one now. Moreover, I understand Amazon is moving to a dual format platform in which you can read both the Kindle proprietary books as well as the open format used on the Nook. I should also point out that one can install the Nook App on a Kindle Fire as well. So, again you are really taken care of in that respect.
I do think that Apple should worry because a lot of people will buy this as an entry gateway into tablets and get ‘trapped’ in the Amazon vortex. Over time, I would expect Amazon then to move up closer into the iPad’s price points. It’s only a matter of time.
As this article https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/oct/28/android-fragmentation-not-really points out Google may be the ones who need to worry about the Fire.
Makes sense to me since Google’s platform is being ‘hijacked’. Apparently Amazon is using the Gingerbread platform for its tablet. It’s even using the tablet-specific Android operating system and it has forked the OS in a very proprietary way to un-Google the interface. Google can’t like this aspect one bit because Google is not in Microsoft’s position of being able to extract fees for the OS.
I suspect Google’s trump card is that it could one day, having gotten all the patents, start charging for the OS. If companies start forking Android this way and un-Googling the platform, they will be forced to take control by taking this route to monetising their investment.
Google will still dominate the mobile search market unless Siri makes inroads there. That is why Google are not so bothered about licensing Android. Though retaining Google as the search tool ensures that dominance and removal of that would probably require a large licensing fee. That said Google are having to pay Apple $15 per phone for licenses via some manufacturers. They are a long way from dominating the license market. That was why they paid so much for Motorola.
The Kindle Fire is no iPad killer. It might kill off many of the other Tablets out there. Though the iPad is safe for now. The Kindle had a niche which was very good for its market. As an e-reader it is the leader, though the Kindle Fire is not an e-reader. If the technology for a colour e-ink screen was available then as a colour e-reader it would sweep the field. The Fire as it stands is just another tablet. Apple have nothing to fear from it. Though every other tablet manufacturer does.
Agree. It will be a huge negative for Barnes and Noble though. Unless you are already in the Nook vortex, why would you get one now. Moreover, I understand Amazon is moving to a dual format platform in which you can read both the Kindle proprietary books as well as the open format used on the Nook. I should also point out that one can install the Nook App on a Kindle Fire as well. So, again you are really taken care of in that respect.
I do think that Apple should worry because a lot of people will buy this as an entry gateway into tablets and get ‘trapped’ in the Amazon vortex. Over time, I would expect Amazon then to move up closer into the iPad’s price points. It’s only a matter of time.
As this article https://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/oct/28/android-fragmentation-not-really points out Google may be the ones who need to worry about the Fire.
Makes sense to me since Google’s platform is being ‘hijacked’. Apparently Amazon is using the Gingerbread platform for its tablet. It’s not using the tablet-specific Android operating system and it has forked the OS in a very proprietary way to un-Google the interface. Google can’t like this aspect one bit because Google is not in Microsoft’s position of being able to extract fees for the OS.
I suspect Google’s trump card is that it could one day, having gotten all the patents, start charging for the OS. If companies start forking Android this way and un-Googling the platform, they will be forced to take control by taking this route to monetising their investment.
Google will still dominate the mobile search market unless Siri makes inroads there. That is why Google are not so bothered about licensing Android. Though retaining Google as the search tool ensures that dominance and removal of that would probably require a large licensing fee. That said Google are having to pay Apple $15 per phone for licenses via some manufacturers. They are a long way from dominating the license market. That was why they paid so much for Motorola.