Amazon Set to Unveil $199 'Kindle Fire' Tablet

[benpatient]

My wife went to Amazon.com this morning to check out some baby stuff, and sent me a message asking which one of these new Kindles we were going to buy for Christmas.

That says more than any number of techie/geek reviews ever could. It's the right size and the right price, and the interface is slick enough that women are going to like it.

time for apple to dust off that 7 inch ipad prototype...

 

[Boston007]

Amazon Kindle Fire demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-oUrzy0Lvw

^^ You can see a lag at 3:20 mark but that interface is actually much CLEANER than I expected from Amazon or from any Android tablet. Meaning it doesn't look like a jumbled mess like what you see in Honeycomb. Everything is organized very well.

$199. Can't beat that price for its value and this is a first gen. It does get better and it does get cheaper over time. Now I see the Kindle for $79 which means I can't sell my Mom's Kindle 3 for $100 anymore even with the accessories. So if the Kindle Fire is $199 now, wait another year. This same model could cost like $129 by next year while another one with dual-core or whatever will take over the $199 price point.

This is why I always liked Amazon. They always play FAIR with the prices which is why they are the #1 online store with the most satisfied online shoppers.[/QUOTE]

Yup and they have the #1 service of ANYONE.

 

[benpatient]

Agreed on all but #3. Did you see the other new Kindles announced today? There are 3 (yes 3) new e-ink Kindles plus the existing 2 models. E-ink still has its place and will for some time to come.

yeah, there is no way eink is going away. The people who keep saying things like this haven't ever used a kindle in real life. it is a superior reading experience.

 

[Heijtink]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

My daughter is almost 2 years old now. She's been using an ipad for various games and reading/learning apps since she was about 9 months old. It's also been great for playing movies while on car trips.
Lately she drives me and my wife nuts, wanting either our phones or the ipad for angry birds, monkey blast or her interactive books. So much so I was leaning toward getting her a personal ipod touch.

I'll have to wait and see how this kindle plays on the field first. It's right at the same price point. It will all come down to content.

Do you and your daughter a favour and buy her a good book to read. Seriously iPads and other devices are fine but when I see the attention span of kids these days. If it doesn't move, make noise or a sound it isn't interesting any more.

 

[aohus]

thats IT AMAZON.

I am now officially a JEFF BEZOS FANBOY

 

[CrAkD]

i think this will def cut into the ipad share. The only question is how big? Apple die hards aren't going to switch to amazon but the average person that just wants to browse and check email this is a no brainer. As much as people want to say this is a "media consumption" device more then a "creation" device.....what is the ipad for 90% of people that use it? Its for web browsing, email and videos for most people. so to be able to do that for a $300 less entry fee people will make that choice.

 

[Taz Mangus]

is the 1st b in your screenname for "butthurt"?

Boy was that a mature response

 

[brodas]

Apple needs a 7.7 tablet with the resolution of the current ipad and they need to double the resolution of the 9.7 one. A 7 inch tablet priced at 300 would be a killer

 

[Boston007]

yeah, there is no way eink is going away. The people who keep saying things like this haven't ever used a kindle in real life. it is a superior reading experience.

I agree completely. The fact that Amazon is releasing 3 new e-readers proves sales are not diminishing and there is still a market for them.

Reading on an e-ink display has to be one of the most relaxing things. It's exactly like reading a physical book.

 

[KnightWRX]

Like some other folks have mentioned, no embedded email client? That seems really... weird.

The other folks are just wrong ?

Email

Stay in touch using our built-in email app that gets your webmail (Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL etc.) into a single inbox. Import your messages and contact lists from other email accounts. Additional email apps are available in our Amazon Appstore for Android.

Guys, the details are online, just check them before making baseless comments :

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Color-...pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1321411382&pf_rd_i=507846

 

[danny_w]

I agree completely. The fact that Amazon is releasing 3 new e-readers proves sales are not diminishing and there is still a market for them.

Reading on an e-ink display has to be one of the most relaxing things. It's exactly like reading a physical book.

Exactly right.

 

[gnasher729]

Nope- HP sold hundreds of thousands of them with the fire sale, and they have a second batch now- there are a lot of them out there.

And @WRX- Do you really think WebOS isn't going to get licensed out/bought? It isn't as polished as iOS, but some features (ex. Multitasking) is so much better than iOS.

HP had already purchased and paid all the parts for about 100,000 Touchpads. Instead of writing off 100,000 x $300 = $30 million dollars for parts, by selling 100,000 Touchpads for $100 each at least they got $10 million dollars back. After these parts are gone, any further Touchpad sold at $99 would cost HP $200 in parts alone.

Who is going to buy WebOS? For HP, WebOS was sunk cost. Even so, they couldn't manage to make money with it. If for example Samsung bought it, they would have the same OS, but they would have to pay for it. Why would they do that if they get Android for free? And HP has burned the market for WebOS. Samsung (just an example) could easily sell Android tablets for $400, $500 or $600, depending on what hardware features they add, but the price for a WebOS device is now set at $99.

And since HP now has a new CEO, their new CEO is free to stop WebOS development and admit to a $1.2 billion loss, because it is Apotheker's loss and not hers.

 

[benpatient]

I just read this in the kindle touch description:

Kindle Touch makes it easy to take your personal documents with you, eliminating the need to print. You and your approved contacts can e-mail documents – including Word, PDF and more - directly to your Kindle and read them in Kindle format. Your personal documents will be stored in your Kindle library on Amazon and ready to download conveniently anywhere at any time. You can add notes, highlights and bookmarks, which are automatically synchronized across devices along with the last page you read using our Whispersync technology.

That is completely new. And very, very exciting.

 

[Boston007]

I just read this in the kindle touch description:


That is completely new. And very, very exciting.

Amazon is taking the Cloud idea and running with it.

 

[CplBadboy]

As usual Kindle fire kindle touch only available in the US. Meh.

That Fire certainly looks like a contender. Just finished watching the demo. I dont think Apple have too much to worry about but Amazon have to be credited with such devices as the Kindle range. Wonder when we will get the Fire in the UK.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, Data does not cost wireless providers that much.

Also, I believe Amazon provides a kickback on sales over 3G to the wireless providers.

It costs the wireless providers when they have to upgrade their equipment to keep up with demand for more data from more users. This is one reason why the wireless companies are starting throttle data usage more.

 

[Ubuntu]

No, they won't. This is hardly a tablet. It is an expensive reader. It lacks the functions and apps that the iPad has. It is also too small to do more than some basic consumption. It may find a niche, but it is not an iPad killer. It is a starter device that people may buy before spending the money on a real tablet like the iPad.

No, its a tablet. So it doesn't have a camera or microphone, but it still browses the internet and allows email etc like the iPad. Having a camera and microphone does not stop it from being a tablet. Its not too small either, based on my experiences with the Samsung Galaxy 7 inch tablet which is actually fine to use. I know my dad would probably want this but he won't replace his iPad with it because they're not comparable in my opinion. He currently has an iPad 2 and his old Samsung Galaxy 7 inch tablet because he still uses the Galaxy, he likes the fact that it fits in his suit pocket whereas the iPad doesn't. I'm not suggesting it'll give the iPad a run for its money, but its definitely proven popular so far from what I've read here, and it might just look good enough for people to ask "why should I spend so much more when this caters for my needs?"

 

[danny_w]

The Fire is nice and all but the $199 price is deceptive. To have any constant content on it you have to buy it from Amazon and purchase the yearly $79 Prime membership.

I can see the cost of the Fire rapidly increasing with usage.

You get unlimited streaming PLUS the Amazon prime free shipping for $79/yr. That is cheaper than Netflix streaming alone.

 

[tripjammer]

I have a 64GB iPad which I store movies, apps and books on. When I am on a plane I don't have access to Wi-Fi so I am glad I have the extra space. I have about 20GB of movies on my iPad which the kids use to watch movies on when we are on the road. Besides why should I be forced to rely on a Wi-Fi connection for my content and app needs. Yes I know the Fire has 8GB but that can be used up very quickly.

You right 8GB is not enough storage on this thing. Think about it. 16 Gbs is workable on a low end Ipad 2, but barely. If it had 3G at this price point..and you could use the Amazon Cloud at anytime then I could see it useful.

But it does show that the itouch is way overpriced...and Apple will have to come correct to fix that next week. Maybe we will see Itouch 5 going for $99 and a 7 inch wifi version for $199 and a 3G version for $249.

This Amazon Fire also needs a camera even if it is basic like in the Itouch or Ipad 2. But oh well, the next version will get it.

The ball is now in Apple's court.

Amazon will sell a lot of these, but it is not Ipad killer yet.

 

[KingCrimson]

I just read this in the kindle touch description:



That is completely new. And very, very exciting.

When it comes to consumer cloud services, Amazon is ahead of the game. MSFT/Google/Apple are playing catch up.

 

[aohus]

When it comes to consumer cloud services, Amazon is ahead of the game. MSFT/Google/Apple are playing catch up.

+1

Amazon has been cloud computing for years. They're way ahead of the game. Jeff Bezos is one smart dude.

 

[xumax]

Good statement. If you are in the market for an iPad, you will find a way to get the iPad and not settle for another derivitive.

I Love the iPad 2!
But I Hope Apple ( and Steve -he's still around ) wont be as naive as some of the stupid blind Folks. (Fanboys indeed)

Cheap IS an Argument, and of course it WILL Cut its Share.

Those who think they are Save are those who gonna Loose.

 

[Taank]

Half of you people are missing the point'

this thing is two-fifths the price of the cheapest iPad 2. These are the definition of luxury devices...no one is buying a tablet based out of necessity

a product that (TO THE AVERAGE CONSUMER) replicates a lot of the iPads functionality and leverages the Amazon brand at less than half the price will clean up

i'm an apple diehard but i'm more a diehard about making profit and amazon has got it right here.

I completely agree. I have never had any interest whatsoever in purchasing an iPad. Every time I pick one up to mess with it... I put it down in 2 minutes and say "meh, I would never use that". For what I would use it for, there is no way I would spend five hundred bucks on one. To sit on my coffee table and grab to check email or something on the web? Nah. I'll buy a new laptop for that money, if I really needed something like that, which I don't.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure there are many people who do more on it than check email, the web, and play angry birds. I'm not saying there isn't. But that's about all anyone I know that has one does on it. 500 is a lot if your use is limited to those tasks. All I'm saying is, there are lots of people like me also. I see the Kindle Fire for two hundred bucks and it does give me something to think about. This luxury is not worth $500 to me. Hrmm.. is is worth $200. Something for me to think about.

Someone earlier said something about this being "good for the cheapies". Believe me, if I felt I needed it, I'd drop 500 for an iPad. But, I don't. Any amount of money I throw on something like this, as the guy quoted above said, is just a luxury. Feels like I'm kind of throwing it away. I don't think at this moment I'll throw 500 away. 200? We shall see.

 

[KnightWRX]

Who is going to buy WebOS?

You assume it is for sale. HP could very much position it as an enterprise only offering, foregoing the consumer market entirely. They have a very big enterprise eco-system, of which messaging/e-mail and mobility is lacking and also thin client applications. They can easily position webOS there. A thin client OS for corporate laptops/desktops/mobiles all plugging into the already rich software eco-system HP has for enterprise.

With 3rd parties offering the hardware, HP could push the software with partnerships from Citrix/Novell for server software in the arenas they are lacking packages.

And since HP now has a new CEO, their new CEO is free to stop WebOS development and admit to a $1.2 billion loss, because it is Apotheker's loss and not hers.

Apotheker was not CEO when HP bought Palm.

HP Buys Palm for 1.2 Billion $ (28th of April 2010)
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2010/100428xa.html

Léo Apotheker Named CEO and President of HP (30th of September 2010)
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2010/100930c.html

Leo wasn't too hot on the Palm ideas and the purchase itself actually, that is why the HP TouchPad saw a very early death without ever having had a chance in the market (the initial price cut 2 weeks in clued in every consumer that this was a "don't buy". Everyone and their dog knew to wait for further price cuts at that point).

 

[cube]

You get unlimited streaming PLUS the Amazon prime free shipping for $79/yr. That is cheaper than Netflix streaming alone.

Some TVs can also stream themselves. There's a list at amazon.com