“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
7 inches of failure.
That’s what SHE said…
My 7 inches isn’t considered a failure by any I have ever met.
length.not width. you have profitability and market share confused again 🙂
Lol
+1
Your hands, well in your case index and thumb don’t count. lol
The size, features and price are right in line to clip the Nook at the knees. I’m not sure why the iPad is even being mentioned as they are not in the same league.
They’re in the same league if you use them for the same things. If 99% of the time you are surfing the web, sending emails, streaming video, and listening to music with your iPad, then they’re in the same league. Smaller & less expensive by half for the same four activities seems like a worthy gamble for Amazon to me.
Here’s what Amazon has to say about the Kindle on their website:
Kindle Fire brings everything we’ve been working on at Amazon for 15 years together into a single, fully-integrated experience for customers – instant access to Amazon’s massive selection of digital content, a vibrant color IPS touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle, a 14.6 ounce design that’s easy to hold with one hand, a state-of-the-art dual core processor, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, and an ultra-fast mobile browser – Amazon Silk – available exclusively on Kindle Fire.
You can’t tell me that sounds like an instant fail at $199.
FWIW, I’m a huge Mac fan, but Lion has made my work process crawl (why can’t I scan from my printer? why can’t I print from Preview or TextEdit? Apple doesn’t know.)
On top of that, though I buy iPhones on day one and have an excellent MBP, I have never owned an iPad. I just don’t get them. I know millions disagree, but to me they’re too heavy, the screen looks terrible compared to my phone, and with a desktop, laptop and phone from Apple, I just don’t need it…
So that’s where I’m coming from when I see the Fire. I think, “Hmm… that could work.”
Yeah good luck with that
wait, so you blotch your Lion install and we are supposed to take your analysis of tablets as having some sort of creditability?
Idiot. lion works great. Works fine with my Epson scanner, and prints from every app just fine.
And until you actually use an iPad…..stfu. It is simply life changing. Seriously.
You are SO right. I totally trust your analysis as opposed to his. Your comment is just editorial genius. You do this for a living right?
It’s a known issue at Canon. Can’t speak for Epson.
Lion still has bugs. I first bought a Mac with Panther on it so I’ve gone through four versions of OSX. For me this one has been the most difficult.
Yes, I’ve actually used an iPad. When on vacation I have used my mom’s. I play with them at Best Buy, Apple stores, etc. Not long term, obviously. It seems it’s that long term use that surprises people and changes their habits. I may be in for an iP3, just to see.
As for stfu. Seriously? Angry much?
That’s the problem NB.
When I bought my wife an iPad, I kinda felt the same way you did when I first used it.
However, a funny thing began to happen the more I played with it. I began using my iPhone less and borrowing her iPad more. It’s like exiting a nice but rather cramped halway out into a wide open field where one can breath. Until one experiences the iPad in this they will never undestand it.
The iPad is like that. It can be hard to see the appeal until you’ve had some serious time playing with one. My wife wasn’t sure she wanted one, and agreed to get one almost reluctantly. (I’m a gadget geek and wanted to get her one as a present so I could occasionally play with it myself.) She now uses it every day and I’ve lost track of the number of apps she’s bought for it.
——RM
I appreciate the comments. Funny story: My wife’s son (aged 10) just discovered the game “Age of Empires”. When I asked him about it he said, “It only works on older computers, like the one my mom has, or a Dell.”
My wife’s computer is old. Won’t last forever. When it goes, the MBP will probably become the house computer. That’s when we’ll probably get an iPad for general use. Perhaps that’s when the magic will happen.
I would like to see Apple come out with a smaller, lightweight iPad with limited storage and no camera priced in the $250 range.
Also, it would be cool if the iPad could be switched to ’emulation mode’ and run Android apps. I have no idea about the technical requirements for doing this, but it would grease the wheels for those using Android phones to buy an iPad. It would also allow Apple to advertise that its iPad runs 700,000+ apps.
………….?
WTF? Are you serious? An iPad running Android apps?!? Why?
Don’t hod your breath too much longer, because you’ll die before this pipe dream sees the light of day.
Okay man, take it easy. BREATH. I know this guy giving his honest opinion is just so infuriating but just remember that you GET IT. This guy has no clue. May he be smitten for his heresy.
Running Android apps on the iPad would not be a major issue, all that is needed is a port of Davlik and the Android APIs that are accessible via the Android SDK. RIM is reported to be doing just this.
The major issue would be quality, and I don’t mean the apps (although certainly some would be suspect).
There are only a couple hundred (no statistics, I’m guessing) apps written specifically for Honeycomb which is the Tablet version of Android.
I just do not see the payoff in Apple doing this as most software is written for the iPad first anyway.
Those who doubt that anything could be gained by enabling the iPad run Android apps need to open their minds a little:
1-Today is not the end of history: There will eventually be thousands upon thousands of Android apps for tablets, and other than false pride there is no reason Apple and its customers shouldn’t benefit from those at little or no cost.
2- Even if the quality of Android apps is inferior to those accustomed to using an iPad (including me), that doesn’t mean they are inferior to everyone. Lots of Android users like and enjoy those apps. If you rebel at this notion, you probably don’t see the advantage of Macs running Intel processors, either. That change permitted PC users to run software that’s never been developed for the Mac and made it far easier for PC users to migrate to Mac. In the same vein, perhaps you think Apple should have stuck with the GSM-based iPhone (for AT&T) and refused to produce a CDMA iPhone.
3- The personal libraries (apps, music, pictures) of Android users anchor them to Android devices in the future; nobody wants to abandon those personal items when migrating to an iPad/iPhone environment. But if they could bring all of those things with them to an iPad/iPhone, then it is far more likely they’ll make the move. (Since iOS is proprietary, it would be impossible for Android to make the same inroads into Apple’s iPad/iPhone user base.)
5- Some iPads/iPhones are shared by multiple users, and those users may not agree on whether to purchase an iOS or Android device. But they could always agree on the iPad/iPhone if the Apple device could accommodate the needs of all.
4- There will eventually be a few killer apps for Android that aren’t available for iPad/iPhone, including some that may be in high demand by enterprise (business) users. Amazon’s Fire, for example, is an Android device, and it’s not going away. And new Android phones will be introduced for years to come. Why should Apple shut itself off from the apps developed for these devices?
5- Apple could begin selling Android apps and generate revenue from them. By screening them for viruses and malware (etc.), Apple would add value to Android apps and may become a preferred provider of the Android experience.
6- It would be *extremely* amusing to see Apple copy and then improve upon the Android experience, without paying Google any royalties.
Yawn ,the tech blogs are so dramatic. It will sell ,but we will never know how many because amazon never releases exact numbers ,hmmm millions sold ,yeah right good luck with that .plus the prime program adds $79 every year .not really cheaper is it .yawn !!!!!!!
Actually AMZN just like everyone else has to report correct numbers at the quarterly report. Amazon isn’t stupid or they wouldn’t be such a successful company. Just like AAPL, AMZN has great execution. They don’t intend to overtake the iPad but to compete with it on a smaller level. Their real objective here is to have a direct link to Amazon through a device. With these Kindles at these prices they will do just that. Eventually they will sell a bunch. Not as many as Apple but still a bunch. It’s marketing and they do it just as good as AAPL. They will make it so easy to shop Amazon from the Kindle. That’s their objective here. And pricing does matter. They have priced these tablets so people can buy them. Calm down fanboys. The iPad will still reign as king for quite a while. But Amazon has brought out a product designed to help them sell more stuff on Amazon.com. Kudos to them. Brilliant! I’d ask if any fanboys have ever read a book on both the iPad and Kindle to see how much better the Kindle is for reading but I don’t know if you can download comic books? I love my iPads. I don’t own a Kindle but it doesn’t mean that I can’t recognize great business moves when I see one. Sure made my AMZN calls look good today. Wish my AAPL calls looked as good. Let’s see how well AAPL does between now and October 4th.
Actually AMZN just like everyone else has to report correct numbers at the quarterly report.
They do? Then please link to where they reported the precise number of Kindles sold last year, because I didn’t think they did so.
——RM
Just read the report smart ass. You can read can’t you? Or does it have to be in comic book form?
@GM
Amazon does NOT release Kindle numbers nor are they required to by the SEC. The stocks involved in quarterly reports are of the economic kind not the kind you find on backroom shelves. I have the quarterly reports for 2010-2011 and I promise you there are no numbers regarding physical sales numbers of Kindles to be found. So, unless you know something no other investor or the entire investment media community knows, how about you quit being the smart a** and stop insulting others as you yak about stuff you clearly know nothing about.
Backroom shelves? No dopey we’re talking equities. And you clearly do not know what you are talking about. You have the quarterly reports? Right.
that’s what she said!
“Loss Leader” is the phrase of the day.
Kindle Fire, as in preparing for the fire sale to come.
Kindle Fire as in “shot down in flames.” The iPad, as always, is bulletproof & fortified to these clownish attempts to take their turf. And size does matter. (Though I can see in some business situations where a smaller iPad might be welcome for certain tasks but certainly not most.)
I’m an Apple Fanboi saying this, but…this is clearly the first real challenge to the iPad in the tablet space. Clearly. It’s cheap, it’s attractive, it has a HUGE cloud behind it, millions of people already have an Amazon account, it doesn’t look like any other version of Android, it’s not trying to be the iPad. I could go on. It’s cheap enough that people could decide to have this *and* an iPad. Very well done, Amazon, very well done.
Not saying I’ll get one, but still…
I agree, very well done.
Thanks!!!
agreed hairbo.. Amazon really thought about their direction in the tablet market. Amazon’s silk web browser is an instance where Amazon is doing something I’d only expect from Apple. It seems very innovative:
http://amazonsilk.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/introducing-amazon-silk/
Explain to me what Amazon is doing with Silk that Opera hasn’t already done with Opera Mini. Or that the Skyfire Browser doesn’t already do. Both of my examples have some content processed and handled by remote servers, and both have significant security and privacy implications as a result (particularly Opera Mini and HTTPS content).
Meh. I agree it’s well done for Android standards, but I don’t see how you will do anything but consume content on what they’re offering, especially with just a 7″ screen. So, it will be good for Amazon, but I don’t think it compares to the iPad because you don’t get the same functionality and creative ability.
@michael S
That may be exactly the point. Amazon may not be saying “buy this instead of an iPad”; they may be saying “buy this in addition, ideally buy this one first”. And who cares if you only use it to consume Amazon content? There’s a ton of it out there: books, movies, music. You might buy a Fire just for Amazon Prime content.
Why would I buy this and an iPad when the iPad does everything this does and more and it does it all faster?
It all depends on your perspective.
Amazon Fire is a product designed for Amazon to increase it’s own sales.
iPad is product designed for everyone. The iPad is a marketplace of creative energies for just about anyone, from doctors to students, to artists, musician….you get it. On the iPad, people can create as well as consume.
The KindleFire is a consumer device. The iPad is a human palette.
Two very distinctive philosophies for those clever enough to discern them.
‘Kindle Fire’ kind of puts a whole new spin on book burning.
The Silk Browser looks simply amazing and one of the biggest innovation in the mobile space in the past few years. Machine learning based predictive technology paired with EC2?
The Kindle Fire is not an iPad killer, it has a totally different view of the tablet, being content-centric and not app-centric like the iPad and the iPad knock-offs. At least, Amazon thinks different.
Could you help me understand what’s so innovative about their Silk Browser?
How is it any different from Opera Mini or SkyFire Browser, both already on iOS and both already using remote servers to process parts of the web content?
I’m not at all keen on any of these kinds of browsers, particularly when HTTPS secure content is involved – my browser content should only be going to my browser, not to anyone else for data harvesting.
Silk is using EC2, and I don’t think Opera or Skyfire is even close to that computing power. Think of it as a cache.
The Thread browser sounds like the most interesting piece of technology in the Kindle Fire. It could be a revolution, giving everyone faster access to web pages by changing the very nature of how web servers and web browsers exchange data. That being said, it’s a very risky move that could easily become a disaster, leaving web pages broken, slow, and unresponsive. It would be very impressive if Thread works as seamlessly as Amazon claims.
At that price, Amazon will sell a lot. It will be the “good enough” tablet for many people who can’t justify or afford a real iPad.
Actually hoping Apple surprises with an iPad3 before the holidays but I know that’s probably not going to happen.
@Jax44
That’s what she said. Sorry, couldn’t help it.
Amazon is the only other player who can offer content like Apple.
In fact, I’ve made quite a few music purchases from Amazon — singles for $.69 or albums for $3.99-$4.99 on special. I’d rather have AAC over MP3 but at those prices, I can’t complain.
anyone will prefer 10 inches over 7 anytime, !!!!! while i like amazon (i´m not one those people that have to hate anything not apple) I´m very dissapointed 7 in really? android? just wifi? how come you can have free 3g in a kindle touch and not on fire?
10″ is too big.
Trust me, that’s what she said.
I’m sure she was just trying to make you feel better. 😉
So how much of what was offered re: media will translate into the international versions, also are Amazon licensed to stream video content in europe if an USAian owner takes his shiney new toy aboard with him?
Which also raises the question of how effective media consumption will be outside of WIFi range?
I agree with HAIRBO. Job’s slipped with sanding fingers comment. I do EVERYTHING on my iPhone 4 that I do on my iPad. Wish Apple would make an iPad twice the size of the iPhone.
@Mack, then you didn’t understand Mr. Jobs. Have you seen what an iPhone app looks like blown up 2x on the iPad? It sucks crap. What he is saying, to get the same amount of content you see on an app designed for the iPad’s resolution, you would have to cram a much larger resolution onto a smaller 7in or 3.5 in (iphone screen) which would require you to have VERY small fingers to be able to push buttons or enter content. The 10in interface is the perfect size for content creation and consumption.
This will kill the Android tablet market, not the iPad. It looks to be an excellent product for what its targeted at, media consumption and directing more revenue into Amazons coffers. But, it won’t stop the iPad juggernaut.
Exactly. Every other Android Tablet (and the Nook) were just killed today. Not that the iPad wasn’t already killing every wannabe iPad that came out, but with the Kindle Fire, it won’t even make sense for the others to keep trying.
Amazon will be successful with this due to their ecosystem and having the sense to create their own Android fork and ensuring that this device’s UI does not look like Android at all.
Other than the pitiful 8GB of storage, Amazon did a great job with this one in my opinion.
This “Kindle Fire” probably will sell better than RIMM’s PlayBook, however I doubt it will be the “iPad killer”.
This is not an iPad killer. It is more of a challenge to Apple’s iPod touch. It is a little bigger than the iPod touch, has it’s WiFi but lacks everything else.
Control the battle here. This isn’t in the iPad’s level of device. Think lower.
Ha, a slap on your face! My workmate has been saying:”Just wait, Amazon will come up with iPad killer, a 10″ shopping pad. It will be so cool, it has a stereo camera for 3D product pics, and will make shopping awesome with its built in app and payment system”.
This is not a contender to the iPad because it is not a content “creator”, it is only a content “consumer”; the iPad is both. Also, it will not have simple and easy access to all of your iTunes media.
All that said, I believe it will sell very well this Christmas, but will be a distant second to the iPad. The majority of people want iPads. The cheapskates will see this a “good enough” tablet device for only $199 all the while not really understanding what a true tablet device can and should do. And those parents whose kids desperately want an iPad will be getting them a Kindle Fire because $199 is easier to stomach than $499 on a device their kids will end up losing or breaking within two weeks.
The Kindle Fire is a “me to” device for penny pinchers. And in this economy there are a lot of those people in America.
Even if I buy two of them, I’ll still only have half the machine ….
People who have an Amazon Prime account, people who want “just a little more” content on their Kindle and people who are price sensitive will buy one of these. I don’t think it’s DOA by any means, but it’s definitely not an iPad killer.
http://themacadvocate.com/2011/09/28/introducing-the-color-kindle-err-amazon-nook-err/
The complaint about the iPad is always that it is for consumption only. FALSE!!
But with no microphone and no camera, this Kindle is truly consumption only, and it make iPad look like a full-blown computer by comparison.
For our family, this is an upgraded IPod touch. People who are considering an 8G touch for kids to play with will likely find this attractive (I know that’s why I’m going to order one).
I think this product will have some success, but not at the expense of iPad. iPad sales growth will continue.
People who buy iPads are still going to buy iPads. This Amazon tablet will be attractive to the same people who bought the HP TouchPad for $99, but would not have bought it (or even an iPad) for $499. For this group of consumers, it’s more about price, less about features and quality.
The tablet market is still very young. Kindle Fire will probably help accelerate overall adoption of the “tablet” as a computing device. In the long run, more consumers who are comfortable with using tablet computers will be helpful to Apple. The VERY LARGE “pool” of existing Windows PC users is certainly helpful in the steady growth of Mac sales during the last few years; experienced users who want something better “next time.”
So when they are ready to buy their next tablet computer, they will be agreeable to thinking about more than just the price tag, and would consider spending more. As experienced tablet users, they will be more likely to get an iPad. They will still be able to access their Amazon content (except for Android apps) on an iPad, because Amazon is motivated to sell content, not hardware.