Amazon Set to Unveil $199 'Kindle Fire' Tablet

[KingCrimson]

Uh oh, Amazon in big trouble!

Kindle Fire DOA in international market

Basically Amazon can't afford the extortionist license fees to markets like Canada, so no Kindle Fire sales there. Apple is the only one with the deep pockets to pay up.

 

[Smallville]

Something I don't understand is the absolute feverish desire of some people to see everything not named Apple fail. How is that good for a healthy marketplace? Apple is just another corporation, and Steve Jobs isn't Jesus Christ. Some of you are downright creepy with your devotion to this company.

Yeah, I love that Apple makes reliable products. I love that I'll get about six years out of my iMac. But I don't need everything to be branded Apple, and I don't need them completely integrated into my life.

 

[KingCrimson]

Something I don't understand is the absolute feverish desire of some people to see everything not named Apple fail. How is that good for a healthy marketplace? Apple is just another corporation, and Steve Jobs isn't Jesus Christ. Some of you are downright creepy with your devotion to this company.

Yeah, I love that Apple makes reliable products. I love that I'll get about six years out of my iMac. But I don't need everything to be branded Apple, and I don't need them completely integrated into my life.

*LTD* and his ilk really think that only Apple is capable of bringing innovative products to the market AND everyone else is junk. That is their twisted worldview.

 

[Renzatic]

Necessary tactic when the competition continually attempts to mimic Apple's innovative products.

Yeah. That makes sense.

"GUYS! QUICK! Those dashing, perpetually innovative geniuses at Apple Computers said people don't read no more! That means they're probably gonna make a tablet that only displays pictures and movies and stuff, so lets copy them by taking out all our font rendering bullcrap! It's useless now"

"No! Wait. People still read. Our Picturebook personal slate computing device that we totally copied from the sole company to produce a tablet cuz they were the first and only company to ever produce a device that's just a screen you jab your finger at ain't selling too good".

"They tricked us again! DAMN YOU STTTTEEEVVVEEE JOOOOBBBBBSS"

"...OH CRAP! AND NOW THEY'RE SUING US!"

 

[divinox]

Uh oh, Amazon in big trouble!

Kindle Fire DOA in international market

Basically Amazon can't afford the extortionist license fees to markets like Canada, so no Kindle Fire sales there. Apple is the only one with the deep pockets to pay up.

To be frank, both analyses - yours and the linked one - are quite crummy.

 

[KingCrimson]

To be frank, both analyses - yours and the linked one - are quite crummy.

Why? Amazon content is extremely limited outside the US, whereas Apple's are not. It's quite simple.

 

[divinox]

Why? Amazon content is extremely limited outside the US, whereas Apple's are not. It's quite simple.

Never contested that, in fact i have written several posts about it. Simply put, im not so much opposed to the starting point of the journey, but the journey itself. :- )

p.s. Apples content is actually quite limited in many parts of the world. Both the direct one (apple services), and the indirect one (iOS based services). That was not the basis of my (not formulated) critique though.

 

[Maschil]

Not on groceries. They charge way more then you can buy at the local supermarket or Costco. However even though I pay maybe $.75/bottle more for a thing like body wash I'd rather do it on Amazon so I don't have to make a special trip to Target. I hate that place, with all the riffraff!

LOL...you may have to factor gas prices into that equation

----------

They are on top of their game at enticing people with deals. I remember I went online to buy some earphones, and ended buying **** I didn't even need, because the deals were so so sweet.

yes that happens often... i just get my earphones from ebay and via dealnews.com i go through them like pencils....i prob break 5 a year...

 

[KingCrimson]

LOL...you may have to factor gas prices into that equation

On the whole I think I might break-even on cost of goods shopping Amazon vs going to all these other stores. But factor in:

* tough to find products that are easy to find on Amazon, especially with all the 3rd party sellers(and they get rated)

* the sheer hassle of driving to all these different stores to buy everything I need

At this point just about everything I buy on Amazon except for groceries(Trader Joes rocks) and the occasional houseware from BBB when I get a coupon.

Bottom line, Amazon reduces the stress in my life by a significant amount and that's well worth the $79/year for Prime membership.

Jeff Bezos has done something that has markedly improved my life, whereas I can't really say the same for Apple.

 

[Maschil]

So how many people will cancel their KF pre-orders when (ok, ok, IF) Apple upgrades the iPod touch A5 processor, 5MP camera, to screen size of 4.2' and (drum roll) 3G?!

3g is already available for the ipod touch....but i think alot of people have an iphone so if the question is kindle or ipod touch...... i think some prefer the 7 inch tablet over a replica of their iphone...

----------

Well, its sort of my job "to get it", being that my research is focused on platforms, platform economics and platform-based innovation. But yeah, its kind of sad in a way that so many discussions derail into fanfests, when the topics themselves could provide for intellectual, constructive, knowledge co-creation.

Some how, people seem to think that arguments, not knowledge, should be won. If they didnt, they would realize that every argument lost, is knowledge won :- )

sick logic.... thumbs up.. BAM!

 

[eye]

3g is already available for the ipod touch....but i think alot of people have an iphone so if the question is kindle or ipod touch...... i think some prefer the 7 inch tablet over a replica of their iphone...

----------



sick logic.... thumbs up.. BAM!

This dude has a limited run 3G iPod Touch! Must be a prototype.

 

[Maschil]

Nicely summed up.



That is what makes OSX great - the stability and power of a *NIX system.



How is this for reality?

Apple iDevices Make More Money Than All of Microsoft’s Products Put Together
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2011/10/01/idevices-make-more-money-microsoft/

• 
  “The Mac business generates more Revenue than Windows" (The truth hurts!)

• 
  "iOS powered devices generate more revenue than all of Microsoft’s products put together" (Ouch!!)

• 
  "Apple’s revenues grew 413% since Q2 2007 while Microsoft’s grew 26%" (Ouch again!!!)

• 
  "The release of Windows 7 had a marked effect on revenues in the launch quarter but the sales did not seem to grow above the previous version’s run rate ($4.2b/quarter vs. $4.7b/q on average).” (No surprise there!)

Good luck Kindle Fire. You will need a lot of it!

your comparing apple to windows... and then apple to android????? your joking right... really??

----------

On the whole I think I might break-even on cost of goods shopping Amazon vs going to all these other stores. But factor in:

* tough to find products that are easy to find on Amazon, especially with all the 3rd party sellers(and they get rated)

* the sheer hassle of driving to all these different stores to buy everything I need

At this point just about everything I buy on Amazon except for groceries(Trader Joes rocks) and the occasional houseware from BBB when I get a coupon.

Bottom line, Amazon reduces the stress in my life by a significant amount and that's well worth the $79/year for Prime membership.

Jeff Bezos has done something that has markedly improved my life, whereas I can't really say the same for Apple.

totally agreeed...i have a love hate relationship with apple....love their products... hate their greed.. i appreciate amazon just for making the tablet 200 dollars....

 

[eye]

The Kindle Fire looks like a piece of junk...but cheap people will buy them and never know how cool a tablet can be after they stop using it three weeks later.

 

[Maschil]

This dude has a limited run 3G iPod Touch! Must be a prototype.

lol im refering to the option from sprint and virgin mobile to put 3g on your ipod touch.... its like 30 bucks for 1g... (rip off) i know but it exist...

 

[Renzatic]

"Apple’s revenues grew 413% since Q2 2007 while Microsoft’s grew 26%" (Ouch again!!!)

"The release of Windows 7 had a marked effect on revenues in the launch quarter but the sales did not seem to grow above the previous version’s run rate ($4.2b/quarter vs. $4.7b/q on average).” (No surprise there!)

I gotta comment on this.

Okay, look at Apple before the release of the iPod. They were doing decently enough, but weren't exactly setting the world on fire at the time. Mostly, they were selling Mac computers to Mac fans, and only Mac people were paying them much attention.

Now look at Microsoft around the same time. It's pretty much a given that if you owned a computer, you were using Windows. In the business world, it was all Microsoft all the time.

In other words, they were huge, and Apple was small.

Now, we flash forward to the release of the iPhone. Apple suddenly explodes on the scene. People buy iPhones left and right, and they rake in the money. The release of the iPad only sped up that growth. During that same time, MS only grew a little bit.

Know why that is?

Because MS was already pretty damn big, and had long since stabilized. Apple pretty much had nowhere else to go but up. It doesn't mean that MS is now sputtering out, and having one last little oomph before they start spiraling the drain. I mean how much bigger can a company get?

So this is why Apple has seen over 400% growth in the last 4 years, while MS has only seen 26%. Apple had more room to grow. That's it. I'm not discounting the fact that their sudden rise was anything short of meteoric. It's damn amazing for a company to see that much growth in such a short amount of time. But the end result isn't so much that one company has killed the other, and blah blah ect ect. It just means that the little company is now big, and the big company is...well...still big.

So ouch for MS and their piddly 26% growth? Eh. Not really. It's hard to spread out and grow when you're pretty much everywhere already. They ain't hurtin' none.

...or at least they aren't right now. These next few years are gonna be pretty damn interesting.

 

[KingCrimson]

So ouch for MS and their piddly 26% growth? Eh. Not really. It's hard to spread out and grow when you're pretty much everywhere already. They ain't hurtin' none.

...or at least they aren't right now. These next few years are gonna be pretty damn interesting.

Finally a voice of reason in the Apple vs MSFT wars. Remember MSFT once had market cap well over $400 billion in 2000. No company gets to stay No. 1 forever, there are ups and downs. Even in their "down" period the last 5-6 years MSFT has raked in a ton of cash and produced lots of important products. The next 5 years is going to be very rosy for MSFT.

 

[Bernard SG]

Apples content is actually quite limited in many parts of the world. Both the direct one (apple services), and the indirect one (iOS based services). That was not the basis of my (not formulated) critique though.

If we exclude apps from the 'content' umbrella, that's true. However it doesn't seem to matter much. While content (specifically music) was crucial for the growth of the iPod, it doesn't matter that much for the iPad and iPhone for which apps are the key; and many apps are actually portals to paid content, which allows to circumvent the absence of an iTunes direct offer in emergent markets.

That's actually what makes the KF and iPad 2 two totally different beasts. The KF might marginally eat Apple's lunch for a little while (in USA) but it seems the intersection between the market segments they're targeting is small. The KF is what matches the moniker "Media-tablet". The iPad is a tablet-computer - I'm not saying that the KF does not have computing-abilities but the product as it's delivered is deliberately stripped-down in order to hinder those abilities.

 

[KingCrimson]

Honestly I can't understand what Amazon's long term goals are here. They won't make much profit from the Kindle Fire at all, it seems to be just about increasing brand awareness. They'll be lucky if they get back their 100% ROI.

 

[Bernard SG]

I gotta comment on this.

Okay, look at Apple before the release of the iPod. They were doing decently enough, but weren't exactly setting the world on fire at the time. Mostly, they were selling Mac computers to Mac fans, and only Mac people were paying them much attention.

Now look at Microsoft around the same time. It's pretty much a given that if you owned a computer, you were using Windows. In the business world, it was all Microsoft all the time.

In other words, they were huge, and Apple was small.

Now, we flash forward to the release of the iPhone. Apple suddenly explodes on the scene. People buy iPhones left and right, and they rake in the money. The release of the iPad only sped up that growth. During that same time, MS only grew a little bit.

Know why that is?

Because MS was already pretty damn big, and had long since stabilized. Apple pretty much had nowhere else to go but up. It doesn't mean that MS is now sputtering out, and having one last little oomph before they start spiraling the drain. I mean how much bigger can a company get?

So this is why Apple has seen over 400% growth in the last 4 years, while MS has only seen 26%. Apple had more room to grow. That's it. I'm not discounting the fact that their sudden rise was anything short of meteoric. It's damn amazing for a company to see that much growth in such a short amount of time. But the end result isn't so much that one company has killed the other, and blah blah ect ect. It just means that the little company is now big, and the big company is...well...still big.

So ouch for MS and their piddly 26% growth? Eh. Not really. It's hard to spread out and grow when you're pretty much everywhere already. They ain't hurtin' none.

...or at least they aren't right now. These next few years are gonna be pretty damn interesting.

You're right that Microsoft is still largely significant as a business but its problem is that it's quickly becoming irrelevant technologically insofar that they have little to no presence in today's tech growth segments. They made, and still make a good job in making and keeping the PC paradigm a big thing, but technological paradigms tend to obsolesce increasingly fast. Windows is Microsoft's strength but it's also its weakness prospectively because the focus on keeping it strong prevents Microsoft to make inroads in the future growth drivers of the tech industry, which have shifted from the enterprise sphere towards the consumer's one.

 

[KingCrimson]

You're right that Microsoft is still largely significant as a business but its problem is that it's quickly becoming irrelevant technologically insofar that they have little to no presence in today's tech growth segments. They made, and still make a good job in making and keeping the PC paradigm a big thing, but technological paradigms tend to obsolesce increasingly fast. Windows is Microsoft's strength but it's also its weakness prospectively because the focus on keeping it strong prevents Microsoft to make inroads in the future growth drivers of the tech industry, which have shifted from the enterprise sphere towards the consumer's one.

Once again that's nonsense as evidence by 450 million Windows 7 licenses sold, Windows Phone 7 Mango, Azure, Office 365, X-Box Live and Windows 8.

 

[Bernard SG]

Once again that's nonsense as evidence by 450 million Windows 7 licenses sold, Windows Phone 7 Mango, Azure, Office 365, X-Box Live and Windows 8.

Except WP 7 those are not future growth segments. And WP 7 so far is not gaining popularity.

 

[KingCrimson]

Except WP 7 those are not future growth segments. And WP 7 so far is not gaining popularity.

That's very premature as Mango was just released days ago and Nokia phones have not been released or the HTC Titan. Once you have that combination of killer OS + killer devices, WP7 will grow.

 

[Bernard SG]

That's very premature as Mango was just released days ago and Nokia phones have not been released or the HTC Titan. Once you have that combination of killer OS + killer devices, WP7 will grow.

There's a hope but, personally I don't believe it - unless Android collapses under the legal pressure it's getting.
Anyhow, WP7 itself is almost 1 year old already, I fear its image is now damaged beyond repair.

 

[KingCrimson]

There's a hope but, personally I don't believe it - unless Android collapses under the legal pressure it's getting.
Anyhow, WP7 itself is almost 1 year old already, I fear its image is now damaged beyond repair.

Ah, but Android is under huge legal pressures + many Android users are looking to switch to something new.

 

[Bernard SG]

Ah, but Android is under huge legal pressures

That's for sure, however Google is, I think, big enough to mitigate the consequences... but only if they're smart. Their recent move buying Motorola leads me to think they are not that smart.

+ many Android users are looking to switch to something new.

They're most welcome to the Apple/iPhone fanboy-community .