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You couldn't be more wrong.
Android is open source and can be used by anyone without giving anything to Google.
The only restriction is Google's apps and the trademarked Android logo.
Amazon cannot use them without paying a license fee to Google.
The name "Android" simply refers to the OS.

But that doesn't change the fact that it IS an Android device.
The underlying frameworks are still pure Android. Their Android App Store would not work on the Fire if they were not using proper Android frameworks.
Customizing the front end doesn't change what it is... another Android device.

So despite Amazon and Google insisting the Kindle Fire is not an Android device, you obviously know more than them. :rolleyes:
 
2007: Iphone is revealed.
People claim it's dumb, it has no 3g *ruble*ruble* stupid phone, expensive.
Same year, android is announced.
*ruble*ruble* android is better than iPhone *ruble*ruble*.
2008-until now:
New iPhone sucks *ruble*ruble* (even though it has the biggest smartphone profit).
New iPhone-Killer android smartphone revealed by _random_manufacturer_.
Nothing kills the iPhone.
Another iPhone-killer spotted in the wild! Is this maybe it? blablabla, no, it's not!

Now Amazon thinks they can go head to head with the iPhone on the first smartphone they ever made...

compete does not mean they r trying to become #1 they just need to survive and be accepted by enough people to make it affordable. nothing wrong with that
 
they sell it at a loss because the device is basically just a platform to sell their kindle books, cloud services, music services etc. thats where they make their money. sony did the same with their ps3, they make the money with the games

Yes which is why we have Samsung racing to knock-off Apple's stuff with S-Voice and S-Cloud, and HTC acquiring Mog and Beats Audio. Samsung has the supply chain brute force to pull it off. But I suspect HTC, Nokia, Dell, HP, Acer will eventually cede hardware business or justify to their shareholders less than 5% profit margin. How could they have more if you have Amazon selling tablets or phones (or Google's Nexus 7) at cost?
 
they sell it at a loss because the device is basically just a platform to sell their kindle books, cloud services, music services etc. thats where they make their money.

Exactly. I'm not sure what people don't get understand. Google and Amazon sell their product at a very low profit margin because they know they will make a boatload of cash with the things consumers can get while using the product.


New iPhone-Killer android smartphone revealed by _random_manufacturer_.
Nothing kills the iPhone.
Another iPhone-killer spotted in the wild! Is this maybe it? blablabla, no, it's not!

None of these manufactures claim to be 'the killer' to the best of my knowledge. Media pins those products as such. As for a legitimate potential 'iphone killer'? Nexus, packed with JellyBean, would like to have a word with you. Of course there will always be people buying Apple products, but there are a lot of people that will switch to the new Nexus. Head over the iPhone subforum here. A lot of people are saying they are switching. You just can't argue that it's not a VERY impressive phone. Being as how it's so impressive, Apple will be forced to step their game up which is great.
 
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Very true, but apple did change the game for smart phones. Amazon hasn't changed the game with Fire and that leaves little hope they will bring a big change to the smartphone market. It will probably just be another Android device.

Amazon changed the game for e-Readers. Yes - they existed before - but Amazon put them on the map and made them popular. Sound familiar?

2007: Iphone is revealed.
People claim it's dumb, it has no 3g *ruble*ruble* stupid phone, expensive.
Same year, android is announced.
*ruble*ruble* android is better than iPhone *ruble*ruble*.
2008-until now:
New iPhone sucks *ruble*ruble* (even though it has the biggest smartphone profit).
New iPhone-Killer android smartphone revealed by _random_manufacturer_.
Nothing kills the iPhone.
Another iPhone-killer spotted in the wild! Is this maybe it? blablabla, no, it's not!

Now Amazon thinks they can go head to head with the iPhone on the first smartphone they ever made...

They never said they were going head to head with the iPhone.
 
Why?

I don't get it... Amazon is a warehouser and an online retailer. They sell everyone else's shi* so I don't understand their interest in building electronic gizmos.

They'd do better to stick to their core competencies. Spreading out too much usually spells disaster for companies. News flash - the Kindle Fire isn't doing all that well. Why would they want get into another money losing product?
 
they sell it at a loss because the device is basically just a platform to sell their kindle books, cloud services, music services etc. thats where they make their money. sony did the same with their ps3, they make the money with the games

Thats exactly what I said it my past paragraph. The problem is that the ecosphere of Amazon is minuscule in terms of crossover with the iPhone and with the exception of music and movie content has very little relationship to the rest of what they sell. I like Amazon, I buy many things from them already. Why do I need their phone? Because I might save some small amount on the music and movies and books I buy from Apple? I spend so much time on my iPhone for a whole range of things having nothing to do with music, movies, or books ... hence the move toward mobile computing eating into laptop sales etc. My experience in that space is far more valuable then the 20 or even 40 dollars I might save in music, movies, or book content buying it from Amazon, and that assumes I could only buy their content if I had an Amazon phone. I can buy their stuff online, through their app, and dont they even have a reader for iOS?
 
With the news of Amazon, Facebook, and Mozilla Firefox all attempting to move into the smartphone industry, it means one thing: these devices are now becoming common. Very soon, basic phones will be history like giant cell phones were in the 90's. Then someone will once again have to revolutionize the mobile technology industry. Apple did that in 2007 with the iPhone.

Saying that these things won't sell is pretty silly. Most consumers who go into a store looking for a new phone will buy what they see on TV, what they hear is good, or what they sales rep recommends. Unlike people on Internet forums, they have developed no preference aside from "Ooh, this gets on the Internet."

Also, fragmentation? Amazon has nothing to do with Android aside from using it for their OS. They will be handling all of the updates themselves probably. The Kindle Fire has received no updates from Google, so why would a Amazon phone? If anything, Amazon will receive the OS update from Google, heavily edit it to fit the Amazon guidelines, and then roll it out according to their own schedule.
 
News flash - the Kindle Fire isn't doing all that well. Why would they want get into another money losing product?

I'd like to see the source that says they are losing money from the Fire. Even if they are, they are more than making up for it in the selling of their e-books. They run the world of e-books.
 
Amazon should stick to two things on the consumer side: eBooks and selling other people's stuff.

Actually, Amazon makes--or rebrands or whatever--some decent products of their own via their AmazonBasics line (rechargeable and alkaline batteries, cases for phones or music players, basic computer hardware like mice and optical drivers, and more).

Of course, if their phone is the Kindle Fire of smartphones, it will leave something to be desired, but it shouldn't be completely horrible and will probably at least be reasonably priced.
 
I don't get it... Amazon is a warehouser and an online retailer. They sell everyone else's shi* so I don't understand their interest in building electronic gizmos.

They'd do better to stick to their core competencies. Spreading out too much usually spells disaster for companies. News flash - the Kindle Fire isn't doing all that well. Why would they want get into another money losing product?

Ah, you've missed Amazon's whole strategy. Amazon plans to sell their own branded electronics at a lost intentionally. Google is the same way. Google actually doesn't earn much money from the sale of Android devices, aside from Nexus devices. The whole idea behind Amazon and Google's plan is to seed the public with tons of devices, no matter what the cost, and then offer services (and ads for Google) tied in directly to their phone. THIS is their profit making strategy. Being able to access Amazon in one click and not having to type in confidential information all the time is a huge plus for those who order off of Amazon regularly.
 
So... you're saying that you agree with him that they're both Unix spinoffs?

MacOS X is not a Unix spinoff - MacOS X _is_ Unix.

Linux is not a Unix spinoff - Linux is a completely independent development, intended to be Unix compatible to some degree, but not related in any way.

I didn't say that I agreed with him, and I can't see where you saw that. And for the record, I disagree with him quite strongly.
 
Very true, but apple did change the game for smart phones. Amazon hasn't changed the game with Fire and that leaves little hope they will bring a big change to the smartphone market. It will probably just be another Android device.

And??? I think that's their goal. Get a device out there that is focused on delivering THEIR content. Not sure why they have to "change the game".
 
So why do people call it OS X then? Why does MacRumors have an iOS blog? Shouldn't the iOS blog be called the UNIX blog?

If the Kindle Fire can be called an Android device (despite both Google and Amazon insisting it is not), then the Android name is just a meaninglessly generic name that seems to serve almost no purpose other than that it (might) run (some) apps made for Android. But heck even RIM's Playbook OS can run Android apps. Which further illustrates my point.

The Fire not only doesn't run many Android apps, it has an entirely different ecosystem, distribution chain, user interface, etc. It is entirely stripped of anything Google and competes against Google's Android ecosystem.

And again, (and most importantly), Amazon does not call it an Android device and Google themselves do not allow Amazon to call it an Android device even if they wanted to.

So why would MacRumors decide to go completely against the maker of the device and the maker of the OS in question and call it Android anyway? Boggles my mind.

Typical technology illiterate post.
 
Has to be one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. There is no way they can compete. They are not a technology company. Annual releases? Engineering? great new compelling features?

I love seeing my friends and associates text messages come up in blue for the first time. After some of them have told me, "oh I will never use an iPhone, I can't stand not having a keyboard" etc .blah blah blah... I reply to their text immediately with the old line from back in the day about Microsoft comedically. "Welcome to the Borg, you have been assimilated"

The kindle is already sold at a loss with the expectation that sales will cover. Amazon is trying to compete for content sales in what has to be very narrow margins with its competitors. I wonder how much of an installed base, that is actually buying their content. will be necessary for them to break even. Bad business idea IMHO.

I'm guessing they've analyzed the data (or paid some big consulting firm to do so) and determined that the path they started on with their e-readers and the Fire, has been successful so far and that they should continue.
 
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I mean, in regards to how well their tablets sell, im sure they can pull a nice piece of the market for themselves.
 
So despite Amazon and Google insisting the Kindle Fire is not an Android device, you obviously know more than them. :rolleyes:
No, but apparently I know more than you do.
Pull the Fire's source code... it's Android.
They can refuse to call it Android for marketing purposes, but the source code doesn't lie.

Here... see for yourself.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200203720

Android.mk files all over the place.

Randomly open any file and see for yourself.

Oh and what is this.... LinearLayout.java
/*
* Copyright (C) 2008 The Android Open Source Project
*
* Licensed under the Eclipse Public License, Version 1.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/epl-v10.php
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/

package mock_android.widget;

import mock_android.view.ViewGroup;

public class LinearLayout extends ViewGroup {

public class LayoutParams extends mock_android.view.ViewGroup.LayoutParams {

}

}

They're even using StageFright for media. StagefrightMediaScanner.h

/*
* Copyright (C) 2009 The Android Open Source Project
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/

#ifndef STAGEFRIGHT_MEDIA_SCANNER_H_

#define STAGEFRIGHT_MEDIA_SCANNER_H_

#include <media/mediascanner.h>

namespace android {

struct MediaMetadataRetriever;

struct StagefrightMediaScanner : public MediaScanner {
StagefrightMediaScanner();
virtual ~StagefrightMediaScanner();

virtual status_t processFile(
const char *path, const char *mimeType,
MediaScannerClient &client);

virtual char *extractAlbumArt(int fd);

private:
sp<MediaMetadataRetriever> mRetriever;

StagefrightMediaScanner(const StagefrightMediaScanner &);
StagefrightMediaScanner &operator=(const StagefrightMediaScanner &);
};

} // namespace android

#endif // STAGEFRIGHT_MEDIA_SCANNER_H_
 
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Now Amazon thinks they can go head to head with the iPhone on the first smartphone they ever made...

Don't believe everything you read. Just because they are coming out with a smartphone does not mean they have intentions of going head-to-head with Apple.
 
Google is not selling their tablet at a loss.

They are selling for a razor thin margin by choice. There's a big difference.

WRONG.

If you buy it through them, it is at 0. That doesn't include Google's shipping cost to you if you buy it through them. If you buy it through ANY retailer, which it's going to be sold at all AT&T/Verizon/Best Buys etc, they will take a LOSS

And guess where most people buy their tablets...at big box retailers like the Apple Store or Best Buy/Carrier stores.

A loss either way you cut it.


Surprise! You were right. Google's Android guru Andy Rubin confirmed to AllThingsD yesterday that even when the Nexus 7 gets purchased from the company's own Google Play distribution channel, it "basically gets (sold) through," meaning it doesn't make or lose money. Which means at best, Google's tablet is break-even when you buy it directly from them. When you find it in a big box retailer? Google's throwing dollar bills out of the window of a moving car.
 
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I so wish (for so many reasons) that Steve Jobs was alive and well... but one would be to hear his thoughts on the Amazon Phone.
 
I think it's worth watching

I might be in the minority here, but I think this is one to watch. Amazon is no slouch in the innovation department. They did things with kindle that were way ahead of the game and significantly changed the landscape that even apple now enjoys. When the Fire came to be, it wasn't targeting iPad, but reader devices such as the Nook, and they dominated that market.

I purchase music from iTunes, but I purchase movies from Amazon, because I can play them anywhere on any device, and just about any TV. In fact, most new TV's come with amazon built-in. They have a long-term strategy that's working, building up an interesting ecosystem that's working, and building quality products (within their niche) that are very well received.

Maybe I'm just an idiot, but their history and reputation tell me that this isn't going to be a flop. It won't be an iPhone, but I seriously doubt that's the intention. Whatever they have up their sleeve will likely be pretty interesting, and no doubt offer something new.
 
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