Adrian Kingsley-Hughes reports for ZDNet, “There’s no doubt that Amazon’s original Kindle Fire tablet was a huge hit. It earned over 10,000 5-star customer reviews, it remained the number-one best-selling product on Amazon since its introduction, and it captured 22 percent of U.S. tablet sales in nine months.”
MacDailyNews Take: No, Amazon’s original Kindle Fire was not a huge hit. And, no, it did not capture 22% of U.S. tablet sales in nine months. Question what theses CEOs tell you in their Steve Jobs-inspired stage shows, Adrian. It’s not always true. Bezos wanted you to make that mistake, Adrian, and you did.
• Apple’s revolutionary iPad widens lead as tablet sales surge – June 15, 2012
• Apple’s massive domination of tablet market unabated as Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire demand tumbles – June 5, 2012
• Apple’s iPad remains dominant in Q112 while Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire fizzles – June 4, 2012
• Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire shipments have dropped off a cliff – May 9, 2012
• Amazon’s Kindle Fire shipments fizzle to anemic 4% market share – May 4, 201210,000 five-star reviews on Amazon’s own site. Anybody going to question that or are we just shotgunning codswallop today?
Kingsley-Hughes reports, “Amazon hopes to duplicate the success it has with original Kindle Fire with its family of Kindle Fire HD tablets.”
MacDailyNews Take: No, Amazon doesn’t. They hope it’ll actually be successful, unlike the original Kindle Fire.
Kingsley-Hughes reports, “First, there are new displays. The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD comes with a 1920×1200 1080p HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter, and featuring a 1280×800 720p display. 254 pixels per inch that Amazon says are “indistinguishable to the human eye” — in other words: it’s a retina display.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Comes with a 1920×1200 1080p HD display… and featuring a 1280×800 720p display?” Adrian must be using a crappy Windows PC. And, no, it is not a Retina display (although it is surprisingly good on the spec sheet). When it comes to displays, Retina™ is trademarked by Apple.
Kingsley-Hughes reports, “From a hardware, price, and services point of view, there’s a lot to like about the Kindle Fire HD. But there are some things that anyone thinking about buying one — especially if they don’t already own a first-generation Kindle Fire — need to know.”
“First up is the fact that the Kindle Fire HD is a vehicle for delivering you ads. Yes, that’s right. Every Kindle Fire HD that Amazon sells is ad-supported, those ads being displayed on the lock screen when the device is not in use,” Kingsley-Hughes reports. “If you’re comfortable with such things, fine; but if you’re not then this might be a black mark against the entire lineup.”
MacDailyNews Take: Likely not much of an issue for Amazon’s price-concious target market, but here’s the thing: As we’ve seen with Android phones, cheapskates don’t make the best customers. Therefore, those ads are likely to be less effective and Amazon’s goal of selling content is hamstrung by the type of skinflint consumer to which they are pandering. In other words, if you really want to sell content, it’s best to target the well-heeled who actually have money to spend and who are proven to spend it. Unfortunately for Amazon, those are Apple customers.
• Why smart retailers lust over Mac, iPhone, and iPad users – June 26, 2012
Wealthy smartphone users more likely to have iPhones – April 2, 2012
• Study: iPhone users vastly outspent Android users on apps, respond much better to ads – August 20, 2012
• Researcher: Apple iPhone and iPad the top choices among affluent users – July 26, 2012
• Apps for Google Android make only 24% as much as same apps for Apple iOS devices – December 13, 2011
• Study: iPad users more likely to buy – and buy more – online than traditional PC users – September 29, 2011
• iPhone users smarter, richer, less conservative than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
• Apple iPhone users spend significantly more on their credit cards than non-iPhone users – November 5, 2010
• Study: Apple iPhone users richer, younger, more productive than other so-called ‘smartphone’ users – June 12, 2009
Kingsley-Hughes reports, “Another downside is Amazon’s app ecosystem… If you like to have the latest ‘must-have’ Android app as soon as possible, then an Amazon tablet might not be the Android device for you. If you already own an Android or iOS device, then you should be clear about the fact that everything you’ve bought — apps, content and so on — can’t be migrated to the new platform. If the stuff you’ve bought is disposable then this won’t matter, but if you have apps or content that you turn to regularly, switching platforms will mean buying your stuff again.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again: Android settlers don’t crack open their wallets without much consternation. They are cheap. Asking them to repurchase what little they’ve purchased is a fool’s errand. When they figure out that they need to repurchase apps and content, Amazon had better be equipped to take returned units. If they have to repurchase their stuff anyway, Fragmandroid settlers would be smarter to upgrade now and go with the #1 platform and ecosystem, where everything just works.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yuck. We’ll wait a bit to see what Apple has up their collective sleeve, thanks.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Paul” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Amazon takes aim at Apple iPad with larger 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD – September 6, 2012
Amazon announces slew of new Kindle tablets – September 6, 2012
