“Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, unveiled its Kindle Fire tablet computer, taking aim at Apple Inc.’s bestselling iPad with a device that’s smaller and less than half the price,” Brad Stone and Danielle Kucera report for Bloomberg.
MacDailyNews Take: With an undersized 7-inch screen – a proven failure in the marketplace – that’s only 45% of iPad’s screen, it ought to be less than half the price.
“The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad, Amazon executives said in interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek,” Stone and Kucera report. “The device, a souped-up version of the Kindle electronic- book reader, will run on Google Inc.’s Android software, the Seattle-based company said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yawn.
“Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is betting he can leverage Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce to pose a real challenge to Apple’s iPad, after tablets from rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Research In Motion Ltd. have fallen short,” Stone and Kucera report. “Sales of Amazon’s electronic books, movies and music on the device may help make up for the narrower profit margins that are likely to result from the low price, said Brian Blair, an analyst at Wedge Partners Corp. in New York.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yawn again. Regardless of the media’s penchant to wildly overstate, the thing is designed to be a “Nook killer,” not an “iPad killer.”
“Apple rose $3.46 to $402.72. Shares of Barnes & Noble Inc., maker of the Nook e-reader, fell 51 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $12.70, on the New York Stock Exchange,” Stone and Kucera report. “The Kindle Fire doesn’t have an embedded camera or a microphone. The device offers Wi-Fi connectivity, though not 3G access, and comes with a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, the company’s $79-a-year membership service that includes streaming video and free two-day shipping.”
MacDailyNews Take: In other words: Not with a 10-foot pole; we’re saving our $199 to put towards our iPad 3, thanks.
Stone and Kucera report, “‘I don’t actually believe 7-inch is going to be a viable tablet for anybody,’ Brian Blair, an analyst at Wedge Partners Corp., said. ‘It’s a ‘twiner.’ A real tablet offering has got to be a 10-inch screen.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: For an eBook reader, fine. As an “iPad killer?” Puleeze.
Let’s review what the man who invented the category had to say:
One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70% of the benefits of a 10-inch screen. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. The screen measurements are diagonal, so that a 7-inch screen is only 45% as large as iPad’s 10-inch screen. You heard me right: Just 45% as large.
If you take an iPad an hold it upright in portrait view and draw an imaginary horizontal line halfway down the screen, the screens on these 7-inch tablets are a bit smaller than the bottom half of the ipad’s display. This size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps in our opinion. While one could increase the resolution of the display to make up for some of the difference, it is meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size.
Apple has done extensive user testing on tough interfaces over many years and we really understand this stuff. There are clear limits of how close you can physically place elements on a touchscreen before users cannot reliably tap, flick, or pinch them. This is one of the key reasons we think the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps… The 7-inch tablets are tweeners. Too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with an iPad.
These are among the reasons we think the current crop of 7-inch tablets are going to be DOA. Dead On Arrival. Their manufacturers will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small and increase the size next year, thereby abandoning both customers and developers who jumped on the 7-inch bandwagon with an orphaned product.
Sounds like lots of fun ahead. – Steve Jobs, October 18, 2010
Related articles:
Apple’s iPad owns 80% of North American tablet market; Analyst claims Amazon tablet can challenge iPad – September 27, 2011
Amazon’s tablet is a ‘pretty poor stopgap’ that looks a lot like RIM’s PlayBook failure – September 27, 2011
Analysts claim Amazon’s tablet will be serious challenge to Apple’s iPad – September 26, 2011
Amazon to hold media event on September 28th – September 23, 2011
No worries, iPad, Amazon’s Android ‘tablet’ just a ‘Nook killer’ – September 6, 2011
Amazon’s Android tablet really only a 7-inch color Kindle – September 3, 2011
Another Android POS iPad clone. Booooring! Move along another borefest media event.
Now the Kindle is like Epson printers…which model do you want?…15 to choose from…indistinguishable for any newbie.
Thank you Apple for a truly distinguishable product line.
Thank you Apple for not making lightweight junk.
The Kindle Fire is going to grab market share away from the ‘Other Pad’ category. It’s an ‘Other Pad’ killer. Be scared Motorola and Samsung. 😆
Will it make a dent in Apple iPad sales? Of course not. This is getting monotonously predictable. Where is the real competition with Apple?
From the Bloomberg article:
“While the Kindle Fire can vie with the iPad in access to media content, it lacks a camera, microphone or a connection to a 3G wireless network. It may not appeal to consumers who are drawn to the iPad’s larger screen and willing to pay a premium for added features such as video chat.”
Not sure why it’s “paying a premium” to get an iPad when no-one else can make a similar product for the same price. Same with the MacBook Air: how could getting the MacBook Air instead of a Netbook be called “paying a premium”, when others can’t make an ultra-light laptop for $1600?
iPad is in a different class than Kindle Fire, MacBook Air is in different class than Netbook. Each is great value in its own class. You have to “pay a premium” for the privilege of owning a competitor’s loser product (price premium, time and effort premium, lack of productivity premium, lack of quality premium…).
I miss Steve.
This isn’t designed to be an iPad killer. It is more like an evolution of the Kindle which is great for Amazon to have a device to take advantage of its online services and media. Amazon, like Apple has direct media content in books, music, and movies plus the shopping experience. This is perhaps why the other tablets have flopped.
Are all readers required to check objectivity at the door?
For many the Kindle Fire will be just right. Lost in the big picture is the Tonya Harding wack at the knees of the Nook Amazon just did with a $79 Kindle.
Will I be able to listen to music in Canada? Last I checked I could not download any MP3 in Canada.
We could not process your order. The sale of MP3 Downloads is currently available only to US customers located in the United States.