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The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer

By | September 28, 2011, 8:22am PDT

Summary: The price is great, but the Amazon Kindle Fire is more of a second-generation Barnes & Nobles Nook knock-off than a major Android tablet release, never mind being an iPad killer.

The Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet

This? This is what all the excitement about? Don’t get me wrong. The just unveiled Amazon Kindle Fire is a fine low-end Android Linux-based e-reader/tablet, but it’s not a major Android tablet and it’s certainly no iPad killer.

While waiting to get my hands on one-come on Amazon, you’ve shipped enough books to my place to know my address by heart-I already know enough to know what the Kindle Fire is and isn’t. First, it’s not a full-powered tablet. If you want a full-sized tablet with Android under the hood I recommend you give the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 a try.

It is, however a nice media consumer device. When I look at the Kindle Fire, I don’t see so much a tablet as the next generation of the e-reader. Instead of just e-books, the Kindle Fire will let you watch movies, off Amazon Prime’s newly enlarged video library, listen to music, and get just enough of the Web, with its new Silk Web browser, that you can use it for some basic Web browsing.

Put it all together, and I see Amazon’s next generation competitor for Barnes & Nobles Nook Color much more so than I do a full-powered tablet. Of course, with a price-tag of $199, it could be very popular.

At the same time, I wouldn’t whip out my credit-card to order one just yet. After all, there’s rumors afoot that this is a “stopgap” Kindle tablet being shoved out the door just in time for the holidays. I could see that. In addition, Barnes & Nobles will soon be releasing its holiday season update of the Nook Color 2.

As it stands now, the dual-core powered, Android-powered Amazon Kindle, with its 7-inch color display looks to define a halfway spot between full-powered tablets and e-readers. I strongly suspect the Nook Color 2 will soon try to occupy the same sweet spot.

What I think is more interesting in the short run though is Amazon’s new line-up of e-readers. With prices starting at $79, brand-name e-readers have never been cheaper. Writers, readers, and publishers have long been debating just how quickly we’re all going to be turning to e-books. I know the answer now. With prices like these, it will be even faster than we’d ever imagined.

Related Stories:

Amazon’s Bezos unveils Kindle Fire; color tablet computer

Amazon’s Kindle Tablet: Aimed at iPad or Nook Color?

Amazon’s Bezos unveils Kindle Touch, $99; Kindle, $79

Amazon lands Fox streaming deal

Review: Barnes & Nobles’ Nook Color goes Android Tablet

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Topics

E-reader, Apple iPad, Amazon.com Inc., Amazon Kindle, Amazon Kindle Fire, Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka sjvn, has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was the cutting edge, PC operating system

Disclosure

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols is a freelance writer. He does not own stocks or other investments in any technology company.

Biography

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka sjvn, has been writing about technology and the business of technology since CP/M-80 was the cutting edge, PC operating system; 300bps was a fast Internet connection; WordStar was the state of the art word processor; and we liked it!

His work has been published in everything from highly technical publications (IEEE Computer, ACM NetWorker, Byte) to business publications (eWEEK, InformationWeek, ZDNet) to popular technology (Computer Shopper, PC Magazine, PC World) to the mainstream press (Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, BusinessWeek).

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Cannibalism of the market
Cynical99 29th Sep
@Harvey Lubin
THis is a major issue within the Android market. Because so many vendors are selling incredibly similar devices, a new, hot entry will simply grab sales from another Android entry, not the iPad.

People willing to spend $600 or more are quite capable of ignoring the entire Android market and do.
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iPad Killer? Probably not - but I think it will outsell the iPad
pheible 28th Sep
I think that you may be selling the Kindle Fire short. My reasoning is simple - pure economics. The Kindle Fire is within reach of a much greater audience that can't afford devices like the iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab.... the price point is what sells it.

Notice that their are far more Honda and Toyota cars on the Road, than their are Mercedes... sure the Mercedes is higer-end but the vast majority of the population can't afford one.

I think Amazon is on the right path here.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
WebSiteManager 28th Sep
@pheible Not that Toyotas and Hondas are particularly cheap, either. As is true for the Kindle - $200 is still a good bit of money. Get one for multiple members of a family, and you're quickly looking at a substantial investment. I agree with your assessment in general, though.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
kanati8869 29th Sep
@WebSiteManager Well obviously... if you are going to start buying multiple kindle fires for the whole family as an example you have to do the same for the ipad. In which case you just went from well under 1000 dollars to nearly, if not over 3000 dollars. Thus widening the gap between "people who can afford" and "those that cannot".
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
sagec 28th Sep
A stripped down Kindle Fire is no match for the Playbook, which you can now get at Staples B&M for $250.

Playbook specs:

Starts at 16GB ($250 at Staples B&M stores)
Front camera, 3 Mega Pixels
Rear camera, 5 Mega Pixels
HD video recording
Built-in Video Chat
Full Flash playback so you can watch videos on Amazon.com, Crackle.com and Youtube.com/shows, etc.
HDMI out and can play full 1080p standard profile on high-end flat panels

Also, the CPU/GPU combo in the playbook is the best of the field right now, see the Anandtech.com review.

Within weeks we'll have QNX OS 2.0, which will have an Android virtual machine to run android apps, quite possibly including Netflix, which just opened up its app to almost all Android devices in the last week or so.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
dlh06 28th Sep
@jacec But with the playbook don't you have to tether to a blackberry phone to run a number of applications such as email etc.?
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
sagec 28th Sep
@dlh06

No. With the Playbook, you MAY bridge with a Blackberry phone to get native email, such as corporate email, but it is not required.

You can easily use Hotmail, Gmail, etc through the full browser (not mobile).

In October, RIM will launch native apps for email and calendaring with the release of OS 2.0. I'm not sure why these are so important to people when the web versions work so well...
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
timspublic1@... 28th Sep
@jacec But does it run Android? Ah, the point is made.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
env 28th Sep
@timspublic1@... No Playbook runs on QNX, a newly OS that RIM acquired. Unfortunately QNX is still in its infancy. It was brought before it is matured. Maybe next year it will be a real OS. But maybe too late as its brand was already spoiled by poor Marketing of RIM.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
env 28th Sep
@jacec But why anybody needs Playbook when it doesn't have native email? The number of applications are literally nothing compared to iPAD. You need BB phone to bridge and it is a real pain. Overall Playbook is half-baked. That is primary reason why there are 800,000 Playbooks still sitting in the inventory. Maybe reduction to $100 or $50 will make users to think about Playbook, but it is too late in the game.
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Android Tablet Killer
WebSiteManager 28th Sep
It won't kill the iPad, though there'll be some people who may not go for an iPad if they're satisfied with what they get on a Kindle Fire.

However, competing Android slates will have a steeper climb than ever for brain and market share.
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The ultimate strawman
toddybottom 28th Sep
Way to argue against something that no one is saying.

Please quit your job SJVN, you are incompetent.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
czorrilla 28th Sep
@toddybottom

You are the incompetent one.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
sunworks 28th Sep
@toddybottom - could not have said it better or more succinctly! Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has to blob about something to get paid however... no matter how fallacious his post. He is the Preston Gralla of the Linux world.
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Every table is a nice media consumer device
facebook@... 28th Sep
"It is, however a nice media consumer device"

Each is fungible for the consumption of content since non has the features for content creation. Given its price point, it is well positioned to take a significant portion of the android market.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
Imrhien 28th Sep
@facebook@... Very eloquently put. I agree.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
zlgtr Updated - 28th Sep
They are going after the masses that either don't want to splurge or can't afford to splurge on an iPad or similarly priced tablet. And when you look at tablets most people are using them as "media consumer devices". This is tightly integrated into Amazon's infrastructure so I think will deliver very well on that front.

Their marketing is brilliant: "There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp....We are building premium products and offering them at non-premium prices."

And think the iPad isn't a media consumer device? Try using an iPad for work. Basic apps like e-mail, contacts, calendaring are junk on the iPad and there often aren't good third party replacements. Well, I take that back, you can run Windows and Windows apps on Citrix!

But agree it's no iPad killer. The people who buy boutique devices will still buy them. But Amazon is not a boutique device vendor. They sell a large volume of cheap devices in order to sell services.
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Nothing wrong with iPad email and calendaring
toddybottom 28th Sep
@zlgtr
Contact management isn't fantastic, I'll give you that.

Email and calendaring though? I very rarely do any of that from my computer anymore.

"those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less"

I like that a lot.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
Peter Perry 28th Sep
This is exactly what I've been saying all along! It was obvious this Fire was a shot at the Nook Color more than anything else on the market.
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It's called Android, not Android Linux
otaddy 28th Sep
nice try though.
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This device gains new market opportunities for Amazon...
BlueCollarGeek 28th Sep
This device gains new market opportunities for Amazon - any other discussion is off the mark. They are hitting a price point with an attractive looking product that will gain users access to their content. Amazon really doesn't give a cr@p about how well it plays with geeks. They don't care if other products spec out better.
They are after the revenue streams that will be created by consumers accessing their content, not building tablets to satisfy geeks. (FWIW - I am a geek, too)
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Captain Obvious
snaconst 28th Sep
has solved yet another daring case.

At 7", it's not going to win over people who want a device to be productive or to let their kids play with. This is aimed for the people who don't want to spend $500 on what will ultimately be an e-reader/media consumption device and aren't tied to owning a device with an apple on the back. I love my GalTab 10.1, but this Fire will handle 60% of what I use it for. That, and at a size that is more comfortable to hold for a while.

Amazon is expanding on a market that they already own. They are taking their e-reader and adding movies, music, and some web browsing for those who just don't feel like reading at the moment. The GalTab and maybe Xoom will stay as the Android alternative to the iPad, but I think we will see less competitors try to crack in. This might take some sales from the iPad, but it will remain where it is just because people are so tied to the apple and an uneducated "I want an iPad". I figure people will just have both an iPad and a Fire when it all comes said and done.
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It's aimed at readers,
Cynical99 Updated - 29th Sep
@snaconst
so the form factor was a concious decision by Amazon to help drive follow on sales from the store. Lots of people already watch movies on iPods and phones, so 7 inch seems big enough for that market segment.

Always remember, these are largely entertainment devices with productivity as a secondary market.
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The netbook of tablets
Harvey Lubin 28th Sep
Will the Fire steal sales from the iPad?

Actually the Fire will steal sales from other 7" Android tablets... not from the iPad.

It would be like saying that low-cost netbooks (in the $200 to $400 range) will steal sales from the MacBook Air. These two products are geared towards different markets and users. Both the hardware and the software (user experience) are quite different.

Apple has nothing to fear from the Amazon Fire, but other Android tablet makers should start factoring this into their sales projections.

At $199, if a buyer doesn't need much storage, cameras, or Bluetooth, it will be a killer price that Samsung, HTC, and others will have a hard time competing with.
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Cannibalism of the market
Cynical99 29th Sep
@Harvey Lubin
THis is a major issue within the Android market. Because so many vendors are selling incredibly similar devices, a new, hot entry will simply grab sales from another Android entry, not the iPad.

People willing to spend $600 or more are quite capable of ignoring the entire Android market and do.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
hayneiii@... 28th Sep
I suspect the Amazon tablet is the first of a series of tablets at a lower price point than the iPad that will do the same thing windows 3.1 did to the Mac. It is not quite as good, but enough cheaper people will not care. They will then learn the ends and outs of the Android system and the iPad will slowly wither.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
timspublic1@... 28th Sep
As a very happy Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 owner, I see the point that you may have missed. It costs next to nothing and does MOST of what people want a tablet for. Sure, it's not as powerful as my Sammy, but it costs less that 25% and that means people who can't afford a $500 top of the line tablet can still have one. Great new product!
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
env 28th Sep
Fire is a great competition to Playbook as it is made by same ODM, Quanta. This is like a jungle, wherein the Lion King (iPAD) is not disturbed and it will continue to eat the best of best food; while smaller Lions (Kindle, Nook, Playbook, Touchpad) fight among themself. Lion King (iPAD) will be disturbed only by its age, not by smaller Lions fight. Only way Lion King will be disturbed if all other smaller Lions unite and give a joint fight. Till then it is all the way Lion King's World.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
Peter Perry 28th Sep
You guys need to give the guy a break, there are bloggers on this site who never seem to get anything right and you're harping on this guy for his opinion! Really?
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as if terms such as 'iPad killer' even matter!
sunworks 28th Sep
As an avid Linux user and Linux fan, I've read Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for some time, but this post is (IMHO) just another example of ZDNet bloggers (Preston Gralla included) as being totally worthless and not worth the real estate their RSS titles take on my browser.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols just doesn't get it. The other day he blobs (yes 'blobs' NOT 'blogs') about the Linux desktop dead/undead... what a waste of time.

Stevie... you look at things through pop culture glasses, you see things with pop culture vision.

The Kindle Fire is a game changer. The fact that it runs Android is an incredible win for Linux.

Not in the traditional or pre-conceived ways people with pop-culture vision had predicted or wanted... but as a package: price+cloud+needs

This is a new era.

And I'm happy to be here to experience it!
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
zdbananaslug 28th Sep
What do the following items have in common: coffee grounds, bowling balls, a crescent wrench, a Chevy Camero, George Clooney, power crystals, dilithium crystals, crystal meth, hiking pants, bigfoot, a stapler, cheeseburgers, Firefox 7.0, Sealab 2020, Kenny McCormick, EDTA, a used sanitary napkin, eye drops, dental floss, Dexter Morgan, the Washington Monument, Nick Cage, the color purple, anime, granite counter tops, Fiats, and the Greek financial crisis.

Answer: They aren't iPad killers either.

Attn ZDNet management: Please hire writers that have something real or significant to say. Failing that I offer my services as a writer without any experience as you obviously do not require such a skill set with you're present staff.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
Vauxhall95 28th Sep
Anything that can create some competition in the marketplace for the iPad is a good thing. I'm a happy iPad owner, but the price of upgrading from the original iPad is steep. Whatever can help bring tablet prices down in general is a good thing.
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RE: The Amazon Kindle Fire is no iPad Killer
Jimster480 29th Sep
If it can run market apps then there will be no problem. The iPad is not even a good device. Use one for five minutes and you realize that its worth nothing near what they are charging for it.

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