Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD: So what’s the point?


“This weekend, Amazon quickly responded to a huge customer protest about putting ads on the lock and home screens of the new Kindle Fires,” Gene Steinberg reports for TechNightOwl. “Even though the upgraded lineup comes across as a good value as far as price is concerned, it’s understandable buyers would chafe at having to confront ads on a device that’s already meant to serve as a front end to Amazon’s products and services.”



“Well, Amazon relented, with a $15 surcharge to ditch the ads,” Steinberg writes. “All right, I suppose they are to be commended for making a bad situation better.”



MacDailyNews Take: No commendation necessary or deserved. As we wrote yesterday:



here“As they planned to all along. An utterly contrived PR move.”



Steinberg writes, “But, other than price, what does a Kindle Fire offer that would make it a compelling alternative to an Apple iPad or Google Android tablet? That’s a question that’s really hard to answer, unless, of course, your primary need for a tablet is to acquire Amazon content... On the other hand, the new iPad, though heavier to lug around, offers a really good digital reading experience. More to the point, you aren’t tethered to Apple’s iBooks either. You can always install Amazon’s Kindle software, and embrace their eBook ecosystem.”



“What’s more, if your tablet needs extend beyond consuming multimedia content and digital books, you’ll want a rich selection of apps. Amazon doesn’t do very well in that regard, and the Android app repertoire is mostly smartphone-based. Those apps don’t look very well on tablets, which may be one key reason, among many, that Android tablets have not been very successful in the marketplace,” Steinberg writes. “If the existing iPad is a little too large for convenient reading, Apple may offer a solution soon, in the form of a smaller iPad. The rumored 7.85-inch model, allegedly sporting a 4:3 aspect ratio, will deliver far more screen real estate that a widescreen Kindle Fire or Android tablet.”



Read more in the full article here.


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