Kindle Fire - is this the real contender for the iPad's crown?
So, the bods at Amazon appear to have locked away a Kindle and Galaxy Tab away in a room somewhere and lo and behold, the Kindle Fire has been born. Here is the beeb's view on it: Kindle Fire
We have a full colour e-reader, combined with tablet-based device.
The most stunning thing about it is the price - $199 to our US friends, a whole $300 below the cheapest US iPad2.
And it's an Android device with full access to the Android store. If you're using Amazon Prime - @$79 p.a. you'll get FREE streamed 20th Century Fox content, which is good (ppv if non-Prime). Apparently other studios' content will be added later. Until now, Prime has just been a way to get accelerated delivery of goods. Amazon are giving one month of Prime away for free with the Fire as a tempter...
So, OK, it's only got 8GB of storage, but Amazon are pushing the cloud-based storage route.
Can't see how they're going to make a profit on the hardware on this, but assume they are buying market share and hoping to make money on the value-added services - like the expensive Kindle Books (more expensive than buying in the shops).
Can't wait to see how this does, and what the UK price is (£209 - 219 judging by Amazon's usual policy!)
I think the iPad final has a real competitor 
will be interesting to see how Apple responds - hope it's more positive than litigation... 
Can't wait to see how this does, and what the UK price is (£209 - 219 judging by Amazon's usual policy!)
Going by the price of ad-free Kindle 3G in the US & UK, I expect the Fire to sell in the region of £155-160.
I somehow completely missed both the article on WHFS&V news 
and the forum thread 
Think I might need a trip to the optician's... 
I somehow completely missed both the article on WHFS&V news and the forum thread
Very interested......... 
It will sell out if it's released this side of Christmas.
Trouble is...
Have iPads already established themselves as such a defacto standard that no matter how good a rival is, or how cheap it is, they will always be, at most, second best?
Similarly, I remember when PCs and Windows 3.1 couldn't hold a candle to what I could do with an Amiga that cost half the price. But look which one won.
Trouble is...
Have iPads already established themselves as such a defacto standard that no matter how good a rival is, or how cheap it is, they will always be, at most, second best?
Similarly, I remember when PCs and Windows 3.1 couldn't hold a candle to what I could do with an Amiga that cost half the price. But look which one won.
Amiga lost due to poor marketing and failure to repeat the technological advances of the first systems.
Only Amazon & Sony (more so, Amazon) have the capability of posing a significant threat to Apple. Amazon has products to strongly compete Apple's iTunes, iBook store & App store. It won't go the Amiga way, as it's willing to innovate & improve.
Sony's got PSN, but hasn't figured out how to exploit it outside PS3 & PSP.
Yes it is. The iPad is lovely, but expensive. The Fire will sell to the same people who would have bought a normal kindle and for the same reason (eBooks), but will buy the colour one because it is that teensy bit cooler (ie it's colour) and not that much more expensive in absolute terms, and then they'll realise that it does other stuff as well (95% of everything people use an iPad for, for example). Android has finally found a credible hardware platform, and I want one (as well as my iPad, for that other 5%).
EDIT - and all this before you factor in the concept of Amazon Prime Streaming which, if it's as I understand it, gives you (or the vast majority of people who don't really care about lossless or 24/96 or whatever) all the music and films you could ever want for two hundred quid up front and fifty quid a year. AND you get all your Amazon stuff delivered free?!?!? Genius. EDITED genius.
Have put my week old Galaxy 10.1 on Gumtree already
But will the downloaded books now be in colour too when appropriate? (Books with colour plates, maps, photos etc.)
Probably silly, but I would like colour book covers (covers as in dust jackets or paperback covers not leather Kindle covers) just like I can get - or paste in - colour cover art on iTunes for tracks and albums.
I would like to be able to flick through book cover art (just the same as on iTunes) and be able to paste in 'classic' old (or original) book covers rather than the modern ones from latest editions.
Some of those old Penguin paperback covers were much more attractive/evocative than modern editions.
I am revealing my hopeless lack of knowledge of all things e-book. Sorry.
I might be able to clear a few shelves of old yellowing paperbacks and free up room for some more nice 1st ed. hardbacks.
Although I might not. Dammit, I still love actual books! (Can you backup/restore these things easily? Can you read them in bed without burning out retinas? Can they survive repeatedly being dropped on the floor, when falling asleep, as a book can?)
But will the downloaded books now be in colour too when appropriate? (Books with colour plates, maps, photos etc.)
Probably silly, but I would like colour book covers (covers as in dust jackets or paperback covers not leather Kindle covers) just like I can get - or paste in - colour cover art on iTunes for tracks and albums.
I would like to be able to flick through book cover art (just the same as on iTunes) and be able to paste in 'classic' old (or original) book covers rather than the modern ones from latest editions.
Some of those old Penguin paperback covers were much more attractive/evocative than modern editions.
I am revealing my hopeless lack of knowledge of all things e-book. Sorry.
I might be able to clear a few shelves of old yellowing paperbacks and free up room for some more nice 1st ed. hardbacks.
Although I might not. Dammit, I still love actual books! (Can you backup/restore these things easily? Can you read them in bed without burning out retinas? Can they survive repeatedly being dropped on the floor, when falling asleep, as a book can?)
They are colour on my Android phone Kindle app, so I imagine the answer is yes. I still prefer reading the e-ink though
Yes it is. The iPad is lovely, but expensive. The Fire will sell to the same people who would have bought a normal kindle and for the same reason (eBooks), but will buy the colour one because it is that teensy bit cooler (ie it's colour) and not that much more expensive...
Not in general it won't. It's basically a tablet. Not an e-book reader. For avid readers (such as me) there is no comparison...even if I will probably get one for sofa-surfing duties.
Just read that the Fire is a stop gap and another will be released early 2012 which will 'wipe the floor' with the first. worth hanging fire? 
I read somewhere that the Kindle Fire will never be released in the uk
As already pointed out, the Fire is not a replacement or upgrade for the Kindle eBook reader. It's a Tablet device and a standalone product in its own right, although eBook apps will run on it.
Amazon are introducing this as a competitor to the Barnes and Noble Nook Colour and new Nook Tablet (Barnes and Noble are one of their biggest rivals in their home market).
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
For whatever reason, Amazon have not yet adopted the colour version of e-Ink on its Kindle eBook reader range. AFAIA this has only gone on sale in China so far, however that may change as improved versions of colour e-Ink become available.
Still no word on a UK release as mentioned. Perhaps the second model will be the first for the UK.
Can't wait to see how this does, and what the UK price is (£209 - 219 judging by Amazon's usual policy!)
Going by the price of ad-free Kindle 3G in the US & UK, I expect the Fire to sell in the region of £155-160.
Discussed here.
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