I read the first few sentences of this and stopped when he said it was downright terrible. Having just received one for Christmas myself, I really have no idea where all the Fire hate is coming from. Sure, it's not an iPad, but it is absolutely a gap between my phone and my MacBook that I am now happy to have filled. Laying in bed watching Arrested Development, playing Angry Birds on a slightly larger screen, or browsing the web all work just fine. It also was neat that all the apps I got on the Amazon Appstore already sync'd directly to the device.
I'm also really impressed with how Amazon took the physical buttons (menu, back, and home) off the actual device and made them part of the UI by tapping a little arrow at the bottom of the screen.
Yes, the power button is misplaced, but overall I am very satisfied with this $199 tablet that I am finding myself using pretty often so far.
I've played around with most companies' flagship tablets, to include the iPad. With the exception of my windows 7 tablet, the kindle fire was the first tablet that I actually purchased. Overall I love it, but there are a couple of things that really hurt the experience.
The biggest issue for me would be that the kindle fire often doesn't respond to input very well. I often find myself having to press a button 2-5 times in order for it to register. I know I am hitting the button because the button animation seems to be working correctly. I hope that they finally manage to fix this issue with another update. This alone brings the device from 4.5 stars down to 3.5 in my opinion.
The only other issue I have is that magazine/comic books are being sold for the kindle fire as if they are actually readable. This is more of a complaint against magazine and comic book publishers who should have started optimizing their content for digital display years ago. I shouldn't have to manually zoom in every time I turn a page and then pan around. The print magazine industry is rapidly becoming unprofitable, so why aren't these companies busting their asses to create e-reader friendly versions of their products?
Completely agree - I've found the battery outperforms the 8 hours advertised (with Wi-Fi off and lowish brightness, i.e. the kind of settings you're likely to have while travelling, which is presumably when battery would be most important).
Also the weight is such a non-issue - it's lighter than most hardback books, whereas I found trying to read off the iPad waaay more clunky (from a lying position).
Many of his main points are vacuous at best. "Adding insult to injury, it’s an extremely simple and ugly unlock-gesture, just the sweep of a mono-color bar from right to left." Since when is a function being simple a problem? And he's comparing it to a Windows phone, where the entire interface is based on "mono-color" tiles.
The Fire is a $200 tablet, and aside from a misplaced On/Off button (not sure how that got passed QA), the hardware you get for $200 is incredible. The software could use some work, there's no doubt about that. But here's the thing:
They can improve the software.
I don't love my Fire, but you can hardly say it is "downright terrible", especially when you consider the price tag.
I've heard this argument before (hell, even The Lean Startup advocates shipping a broken, backwards v1.0), but it's usually paired with meekness: grow slowly, so that by the time you reach a wide audience your quality is awesome and nobody's the wiser. Instead, Amazon's pushing the Fire 1.0 with everything they've got.
Shame, because Amazon probably could have pulled off the meekness strategy really well, too -- launch the Fire in December 2011 to a small number of hand-picked (Prime?) beta users, iterate, and launch the real thing in 2012.
My mother or any other normal non-geeky people in my family doesn't care whether the problem lies in software or hardware. They care about the experience.
The Kindle Fire experience is terrible right now. That terrible experience is what they'll remember and associate the brand with.
I really do have to agree. I got a Kindle Fire and I love it. I haven't really noticed any "terrible" aspects. It's not perfect but my experience has been good far more often than it has been bad.
Where did you get the idea that the the Fire is a top of the line type device?
The Cessna costs a fraction of the price of the DC-10. The Fire is a fraction of the cost of an iPad...
Even if you have no idea how to compare tech specs, or if you are brain-dead to marketing tactics, anyone should be able to look at the price tag and think to themselves, Well, the Fire costs a lot less than the competition. It's probably not going to have all the bells and whistles, but it is going to get the job done.
Honestly, I didn't even include the iPad in the analogy. I would say the iPad is the 767.
The Nook Tablet is borderline DC-10. Of course, I'm looking at these devices with a rooting perspective as well. The screen quality, RAM, and extra storage space giving the Nook the edge. I have no desire to listen to music on a tablet, so I really only care about web browsing and video. The e-ink devices are still superior for regular text IMO. Unfortunately, since the publishers adopted the agency pricing model, these devices won't decrease in cost as quickly as they would have under regular retail pricing that would've allowed the razor blade model to defer the costs.
Most people these days don't want an MP3 player, they want a tablet. Many people also look at the iPad and think "I could buy a damn good laptop that suits my purposes for $500, why would I pay $500 for an iPad?" At the same time, these people still wanted a tablet, they just refuse to pay so much money for one.
Basically, the market demands a cheaper tablets. Unfortunately for consumers the average $500 tablet contains about $300 worth of parts and labor. This means that in order to meet the demand, sacrifices must be made.
Because most people would rather have a $200 tablet than no tablet at all, the Kindle Fire was born. Like it or not, the Kindle Fire represents the most advanced hardware you can get at that price. While it has its shortcomings, the device is well built and reasonably powerful.
The software, on the other hand, is a completely different issue. I think that Amazon shouldn't have tried to reinvent the wheel. Grid style interfaces are pretty much perfect so I don't understand why they thought they could do better. While I don't agree that the software experience is terrible, I do hope that they fix the responsiveness issues.
I don't think the distinctions you are making between market segments really match the way "the market" actually approaches these purchases. The market for "MP3" players is dwarfed by the market for iPods, and recently, something like 50% of iPod sales are for the iTouch, which, in theory and practice is more than a music player. Up until this point the market for "tablets" has been dwarfed by the market for iPads.
It is undoubtable that there is a market for an iPad-like device that is cheaper than the iPad. As you note, such a thing isn't possible, which brings us to the Kindle fire. It is much cheaper, but it is cheaper in part because it is less "powerful," in part because the hardware is less "refined," but most of the reason it is cheaper comes down to the fact that it is smaller and sold for a loss. That it is smaller makes it, on the one hand, more portable, but on the other hand, less good for many types of reading and interaction.
How will people feel about those tradeoffs. You seem to think that a lot of people will find them compelling because, well, why? Because of price? Price is clearly not the only consideration for people, as the iPod's success demonstrates. Portability? The iPod Touch isn't just a music player, and at least part of the market understands that already, as Apple will likely sell ~7M this quarter. It is more portable than the Kindle fire, and used for many of the same tasks. Taking both price and portability into account leads one to look at another alternative: the smartphone the consumer either already has, or is likely to acquire in the next six months.
People were faced with a similar choice a few years ago. Should they buy a netbook, or a "real" laptop. Netbooks sold well, for a little while. Some people loved them, others wanted to love them, but found their compromises too limiting. I borrowed from work, but it ended up just being a curiosity, and when I got an iPad, I realized it was better for both reading, because I could rotate the screen, and writing, because the on-screen keyboard could compensate for errors introduced by its small size in a way the netbook's keyboard could not. The netbook market is now in decline, while the market for the iPad seems to exceed Apple's ability to supply them.
I don't pretend to know how this will turn out, other than to guess that Apple will continue to sell a lot of iPad's at a healthy profit. I also expect that Amazon will sell a healthy number of Kindle Fires, and its successors. Further, I expect that the gap between the capabilities of the Kindle Fire and the iPad will grow for the foreseeable future, as Amazon "spends" most advances in technology to lower costs, and selling prices, while Apple uses most to drive upgrades and maintain margins.
I mostly agree with you. I don't really think that Apple's technology gap will expand though. Over the next 6 months I can see it happening, but not for the long term. Amazon is supposedly planning on releasing an 8.9-10" tablet in the first quarter. If Apple releases a significantly improved iPad 3 on Steve Jobs' Birthday like the rumors suggest, then whatever Amazon releases around the same time couldn't possibly compete with it. However, Amazon has shows signs of trying to establish a regular release cycle just like apple has. If this is the case then eventually they should be able to catch up a little. Having said that, I think we have a long long time before Amazon makes a tablet that matches the overall experience delivered by the iPad.
How so? I ask because I received a Kindle Fire for Christmas from my parents because I had been debating whether to buy one. So far I have used it for reading books and some light web browsing.
The experience has been good so far, although I have not attempted to stress the device or perform an action it was not designed for. Every person I know, who has actually used a Kindle Fire, has had nothing but positive comments; most of them are non-technical.
A little late on the thread but I wanted to add this for anyone reading in the future. My sister purchased an iPad 2 about a month before Christmas; I talked her out of a Galaxy Tab.
She has since returned the iPad 2 and gotten a Kindle Fire. Her main reason was that the iPad was too big for her to carry around constantly and the Fire fits in all of her purses. Since she would use the device while waiting or at random times, it was more important to have the device with her than sitting at home.
I'm not going to purchase a device because the software might improve in the future. I'm going to purchase a device that has functional software from day 1. Otherwise every day that I have to use the terrible software until it is improved is another cost that I have to pay.
> "Adding insult to injury, it’s an extremely simple and ugly unlock-gesture, just the sweep of a mono-color bar from right to left." Since when is a function being simple a problem?
The author is not arguing against the simplicity of the unlock gesture itself, he's arguing that the simplicity of the gesture makes its screwed-up-ness absolutely inexcusable. Or so I read it.
I love my Kindle, but the Fire is... ok. Part of what irritates me about it is that with some software fixes it could be a lot more. Having the Google apps for instance, would be a huge improvement. Hardware wise, a microphone would have made it into a convenient device for making Skype type calls.
My guess is that the next generation will be a lot better.
> it’s an extremely simple and ugly unlock-gesture, just the sweep of a mono-color bar from right to left
I often wondered why a tablet would need such an unlock gesture. It makes sense on a cellphone because you don't want to accidentally unlock while your phone is in your pocket but can't we come up with a different gesture for the tablet form factor?
Protect against claims of pocket purchases? To stop media playing in your bag and draining the battery. Screens can work again skin though thin cotton trouser pockets.
I think you missed his point about the unlock animation. His complaint wasn't primarily that it was too simple. He was complaining that in spite of the animation's minimalistic design, it still lags. Personally it didn't bother me, but it is kind of silly that even the unlock animation causes choppiness on the Fire.
> But here's the thing:
They can improve the software.
Here is the other thing: the software is the only thing that matters. I can forgive an awkwardly placed on/of button, I hit it a couple of times a day. Lost touch events and the like, are an absolute deal breaker. I would never buy a car that regularly ignored throttle input or turns of the steering wheel, why would I buy a touch-interface device that regularly ignores touch events?
Again, more hyperbole. If your car does not respond to inputs, you crash, resulting in property damage, injury, and possibly death. When your tablet does not respond to a tap, you tap it again and it works. At worst, you've suffered some minor frustration.
Never mind that for about a half a day's work you have a handheld computer that 15 years ago was only available to the characters of Star Trek.
I bought one. I love it. I CANNOT wait for a 8, 9 or 10 inch one because I will be the first one to get it (assuming it's still cheaper than the Ipad).
I have no idea what people are talking about when they say they are disappointed. Seriously how much hardware + software do you want for $199.
Last time I read a book and finished it was a few years ago. I just finished a 500 page book on the fire, and it has certainly helped a lot with note taking, going back to highlights etc...
Browsing the internet is just fine, although the video audio seems to be off sync for Youtube videos. Movies through Prime were just ok.
Sometimes it hangs, but it's not all that bad. You just turn it off, then on (really, you just press the button back to back. like 1.5 seconds).
I think most people were expecting a smaller Ipad. Well, come on.
How is it with reading PDFs? I read a lot of books on my iPhone without any problem, but PDFs just don't scale right. I'm starting think about getting some sort of tablet and good PDF handling is high on my requirements.
With the caveat that I don't have a lot of experience with the iPad's pdf support I'd say the Fire's support is solid. I recently read an entire e-book in pdf format on it. The main limitation is that there isn't a lot of screen real estate so if you want to read it on a full page scale you need to tolerate a very small font (this was not a problem for me). A cool upside is that when you get a Fire, Amazon creates an email address that you can send emails with attached pdfs and documents which will then automatically be downloaded onto your Kindle.
Overall nothing mind blowing but if you like e-readers I think you'll be satisfied with the pdf support.
The problem with PDFs I have tried is that you have to zoom it for each page. I think a good option would be to have to pdf on something like Scribd and they would convert it to an html5 friendly content, then you just view it on the browser. I haven't tried this yet, though.
Funny that anybody can think there is a first mover advantage in this market when tablets have been shipping and failing for about 30 years now, the idea itself is over 50 years old, and some directly related patents are over 100 years old!
The secret to Apple's success is obviously their zen-like patience and restraint.
Tablets could hardly be considered consumer appliances before the iPad. They're not even in the same league, and this is coming from someone who owns zero Apple hardware.
I think tablets before the iPad would have taken whatever they could get, but they couldn't make it in any market. Apple had to wait for many planets to align before they could make their move:
- It wasn't until the web that any new consumer computing platform was viable whatsoever.
- Even then, the new platform had to start as a phone, so people had an excuse to buy it (well, I need a phone anyway...) and so the carriers could subsidize it.
- All the technology needed to be there, and cheap: a responsive multitouch sensor, a GPU for smooth interface animation, a backlit color screen, gigs of solid state storage, hardware video codecs, batteries that last for days, durable glass/metal enclosure, and probably all sorts of little things that we don't even notice.
My point is that the iPad's success wasn't about being first. It was essentially about being last.
Don't forgetting that there were touch devices prior to it, but those needed a stylus. Of course you could touch the screen for response, but those were not designed for such use.
Jobs success was in understanding that the first thing you needed to do to make tablets popular was to throw out the stylus.
I almost hate the Fire. I have a Kindle Touch and I thought the interface between the two devices would at least be consistent.
In the Fire to bring up the menu when reading a book you tap the bottom of the screen. In the Touch you tap the top of the screen. In the Touch you can look up the definition of a word the same way you do on the Fire. However, on the Touch when the definition of a word comes up you can look up the definition of a word used in the definition of the word you just looked up the same way the original word's definition was obtained. You can't do that in the Fire.
Why don't both devices automatically sync? When I first turn on a device I sync. Sometimes when I open a book I have to sync again to get to the furthest read page. Why do I have to sync after syncing?
Why does the browser icon show up on the main page of the Fire every time I use the browser? I keep removing the icon from the main page. Shouldn't I only have to do this once?
Turning pages is a great pain in the Fire and the Touch. You tap the screen and a page turns. This is horrible because sometimes while holding the device I accidentally tap the screen without meaning to turn a page. The iPad has the swipe interface for turning a page. Apple got this spot on. Amazon should copy Apple in this regard.
The web browser on the Fire is horrible. It's slow and I can't get web base email to work properly on it. This is pathetic.
I could go on but the point is made. The Fire is an unpolished device. It's almost entirely pathetic. This is all just my opinion and others will have a different opinion but I would highly recommend getting an iPad instead of a Fire. Don't be lured by the low price of the Fire.
The return rate will be high and Amazon will suffer for it.
The Fire currently has over 8000 reviews on Amazon with an average rating of 3.9. Over 5500 of those reviews give the device 4 or 5 stars. Something tells me the average Fire customer does not have such high expectations.
While they must be included for accuracy, I found that well over half of the 1-star reviews were written by people who knew that they wouldn't like the Kindle Fire, yet ordered one anyways. There were an awful lot of people who complained that it wasn't as nice as the iPad 2 that they explicitly stated they also own. What logical person buys a low-end tablet when they already have what is arguably the best tablet ever made?
sometimes reviews at amazon are annoying. I was reading reviews for a men's gps watch. somebody gave it 4 stars and mentioned that (s)he would've given 5 stars, if "the product had women's model too". It doesn't make any sense. it is clearly mentioned that the model is for men - why write the review at all? people have weird expectations
What's more infuriating is when people give 1 star reviews to products they've never purchased for bogus reasons like "the price is too high" or "this is not out in my country".
ha, that is funny. I can't afford a ferrari, so it must be a bad car, super logic !!
I've also noticed this - complaining about a product "not being waterproof" when the product makes no mention of being water proof, drivers not available for Mac when the product clearly mentions windows only etc.
Amazon should allow reviews only from people who actually bought the product, that will reduce at least a bit of stupid reviews.
I can see this, but when they are lounging around the house with their iPads do they think that it's a piece of crap because it can't do everything as well as a macbook pro that costs 2.5 times as much? The Kindle Fire comes much closer to delivering the experience of an iPad 2 than the iPad 2 comes to replicating the experience of using a real computer.
Companies need to stop copying Apple, because if they don't, every review will be tainted by why Apple did X better than they did. Apple might not have actually done X better, but they did it first, and people like what they already know. The comment about the unlock gesture is especially relevant; there is no need to stipe something across the screen to unlock a tablet. If people copy that, though, the reviews will inevitably compare it to Apple's implementation, and will like Apple's better. (Be it less lag, better color scheme, better font for "Slide to unlock", etc.) If they do something completely different, like a hardware switch, then everyone will be happy because it's the first time they've ever seen anything like that and the idea will be allowed to stand on its own merits.
The Fire is flawed from the start because it uses out of date software. If you are going to advertise something as Android, then people expect it to be good at Android. Look at Archos' Android tablets; dead because they kept it on 1.6 forever. (I will certainly never buy an Archos product again.) The solution is to not advertise it as having Android, even if you use Android behind the scenes. There are many Linux devices that don't claim to be Linux, and as a result, nobody ever cares that GHC 7.4 doesn't run on it; it's just a box that runs software that does stuff rather than being "a Linux box". (Hell, the original Kindle is a good example of this. Do you want an xterm on your Kindle? Nope! So you don't care that it doesn't have X11.)
Anyway, I guess I'm saying that the key to hardware design is expectation management. Be different so that you aren't compared to Apple. Underpromise so that you aren't compared to something you aren't.
If you look at Amazon's own page for Kindle Fire, it does not list Android OS as a feature (with the exception of the Appstore but that predates Fire).
Fair enough. But they obviously used Android, so people (including me) expect the tablet to compete with other Android tablets. That's the reason why I don't have one, even if I would only use the Amazon features. (I do own a Kindle, though, because it doesn't promise anything other than "buy books from Amazon.com and read them on an e-ink screen", and that's exactly what I want.)
I have a Kindle Fire. I actually like the fact that it is an imperfect product - lags in switching tabs, occasional lags so long in loading websites that you wonder if your wifi has gone dialup, the dang "Carousel". I do like the reading experience and pocket-ability - it fits into a winter jacket easily - though you need to weigh down your opposite pocket to avoid lopsided-ness.
The Kindle Fire is the first credible competitor to the iPad. Android tablets running Honeycomb - it hurts my head - the UI - it is like a Klingon control panel. Definitely not intuitive. The Kindle Fire - it is a compromise - a custom, dumbed-down ("The Carousel") UI on the iceberg of Android 2.x.
For me, it is a tangible reminder that products aren't all perfect like the iPad. There is no such thing as immaculate conception - the Kindle Fire will get better over time. Comparing it to the iPad is like comparing NYC to... any other city except London[1]. It's a different metro, not as sophisticated - it's for those who just want a tablet device that is relatively affordable.
The iPad has set the bar - it is the first computer for many under the age of six. The Kindle Fire is no such thing - it is, as a review said best, a Kindle with benefits.
I couldn't agree with this more. My grandma recently bought one and I spend all of Christmas getting it set up for her and teaching her. She's gotten really frustrated and would probably return it if it hadn't been free from her company.
This part especially is what I agree with:
"Yet, the drive to quickly release a product in a hot field is almost irresistible. Amazon believes growing marketshare is more important than the reputation of their tablet. This is wrong. I believe consumer tolerance for poor products is at an all time low, thanks to ten years of amazing Apple products. Unfortunately, the idea that first movers win is widely believed across the tech industry."
Version 1.0 should be magical.
I do need to correct the author on one point though - I did find a native email client on it.
> "I do need to correct the author on one point though - I did find a native email client on it."
Which is nigh unusable. I set up my email account on it and went to bed with it at 70% charge. I woke up with the Kindle Fire at 20%. It drained 50% in about 8-9 hours doing nothing more than email.
Yes, idle email checking uses power, but I have never seen it that bad on any device. The battery is no slouch either based on normal reading/video drain rates.
My Fire's battery has been dry for 4 weeks and counting now. I have no felt even the slightest urge to recharge it and use it. Considering this is a low-margin device designed to hook people onto Amazon's profitable content pipeline, this is an utter and abject failure. Others I know who got the Fire at launch have all either returned it, or their Fires have a fate similar to mine - forgotten in a drawer.
Good question. She hasn't used an iPad so I can't fairly compare to that. The Fire's touch motions were tough for me though too at times so I'm assuming she would have an easier time with an iPad. That might not be a fair assumption though. Next time I see her I'll have her try an iPad.
I'm starting to think there must be 2 products on the market right now called the 'Amazon Kindle Fire' - this very enjoyable one I picked up and this other one that all these blog posts are complaining about.
Having just received one for Christmas I too find the Kindle Fire quite enjoyable. Yes it could use some polishing, could possibly be the fact that it's running an older version of Android.
It's cheap and pretty much does the job from what I hear. Obviously the author's and his family's experience was a bit worse than most people report. But honestely, returning something is a huge pain in the ass. It requires work and backing out of a decision. Very few people ever bother returning things. Just like some percentage of people never mail in rebates.
With apps, you can offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, it will increase conversion, and few people will ever take you up on it. It sucks that it means a business doesn't have to please everyone completely, but the business is in it for the money anyway, not pleasing everyone. I think, from a business perspective, it was right to launch and capture the holiday sales. Subsequent versions will get better. I have a first generation Kindle and later versions blow it away. My version has freaking black text on a dark gray background, worse than cheap newspaper.
My problem with this post is the assumption that the Kindle Fire would have blown away the iPad with a few more months' development time.
Lots have companies have tried to beat the iPhone/iPad. Nobody has even come close. This guy's whole worldview centers around the fact that since he worked at Amazon, all their engineers are clearly the best. And if that engineering team releases a bad product it's clearly a reflection on someone other than the engineering team.
What is far more likely is that Amazon's engineers weren't going to approach the iPad no matter how hard they tried or how long they worked. It's nothing to be ashamed of - they have lots of great company in this regard.
Some people think "I didn't like it" means nobody should like it. I like my kindle fire, although I think I'd prefer a Ice Cream tablet next year. I like widgets and power and awesomeness. But just because I think I might like something else better doesn't mean I'm going to jump on a soap box.
I personally love the Kindle Fire. I'm an iPad user, but I bought a Fire to check it out. It's surprisingly powerful--and the 7 inch form factor is great for games.
But yeah--the interface is fiddly. I think the only reason why I get so much use out of my Fire is because I'm used to dealing with buggy products. I'd never give one to my parents. Maybe 2.0.
Oh--and the browser is HORRIBLE. Despite Amazon's crowing about their new tech--it seems like Skyfire repackaged. And super hard to use.
Consumers are snapping the Fire up because it’s $200, but they expect a tablet. Not a black brick that plays movies.
Some do. But a lot expect an e-reader that also plays movies. That's how Amazon is marketing it: just one of their many kindle devices. My mother-in-law has a Kindle and reads a lot of books, and I keep trying to tell her that it's more similar to an iPad than her Kindle, but I don't think it sinks in because, well, it's a Kindle.
I'm curious as to how this positioning will play out. On the one hand, its a better Kindle because it can play movies, etc, but its also the most expensive, heaviest Kindle with the shortest battery life and a worse screen for reading.
The form factor was a little funky, yes. It was thinner than anything else at the time. And PDF support was an omission that increased the polish, not detracted from it. Reading PDF on a e-ink screen is a horrible experience, adding it was a compromise.
One of the arguments I'm seeing here is that people shouldn't have such high expectations because it's a $200 device. You don't really want the reputation of releasing a device that's cheap because it's crappy, rather than cheap because it's limited.
From a customer's point of view, for $200 they expect a smaller screen, less storage, less features, less ability to run the latest games. They do not expect less fit and finish. See the car industry for an example. You expect less bells and whistles from a Toyota Corolla than you do from a Lexus, less power and less luxurious materials, etc, but you don't expect that the dash will have large gaps in it, the steering will be unreliable, etc.
This is not a mistake. For me, $200 and low expectations make this a great value. Amazon's not building an iPad competitor, and failing to meet that expectation isn't an excuse not to build the Kindle Fire.
The only thing that killed the Fire for me (and sadly I now own one, got it as a gift), is they reneged on their 1 year of Amazon Prime free deal. Now, you only get a month.
Screw that, the tablet is next to useless without Prime unless you like buying movies/tv shows that are DRMed up.
Also, why the hell does it have stereo speakers that are only on the left side of the device in landscape orientation? What use is stereo in portrait?
And on top of that, mine was shipped from Amazon with a defective LCD and now I have to deal with that.
To those saying Amazon initially announced one month: no, this is what they switched it to when it was finally available for purchase, after already having told every tech site that when it launched it would come with a year.
Some websites out there that contain historical information still reference it, so Google for it and look around.
I feel that it is a bait and switch. Even if the news did not originate from Amazon or Amazon was misquoted, Amazon did nothing to correct these sites and has profited it,
I read the criticisms of the Fire's OS and think, "why wouldn't the next version run Windows 8?" It is not as if Amazon has much shared interest with Google or a bunch of reasons to love Android and certainly Android doesn't give their tablets a marketing advantage.
Why wouldn't the next version of the Fire run Windows 8? Here's three reasons:
1. Microsoft's not likely to let Amazon put Amazon put Windows 8 on the next Fire for free.
2. Microsoft will be running the app store for Windows 8 tablets, not Amazon (BTW, do we even know what the in-app purchase rules will be for Windows 8? If they're at all Apple-like, that's a dealbreaker by itself).
3. Windows 8 is likely to have more demanding/expensive hardware requirements than Android
Amazon totally forked Android and ripped out all of the google bits, all of the default UI and made it into their own OS.
It's Android in that it will run Android apps but that's it.
In all other ways, Amazon's Android is competing with Google's Android, which is one of the reasons Amazon don't describe it as an Android tablet unless they are talking to developers.
It's actually a really interesting strategy, although from an Open Source perspective it's always a shame when companies fork successful projects for their own goals.
Is Amazon going to have all of the developers for the Amazon Appstore switch tool chains and resubmit their applications? Develop some kind of clunky compatibility layer?
I wonder if Amazon will do a trade-in program when the Kindle Fire 2 comes out for unhappy Fire owners. It's just the kind of crazy customer experience turn-around I could see Amazon doing.
This sort of comment is harmful to healthy discourse. It is okay to be wrong sometimes, and his previous potential wrongness has little bearing on this discussion.
I was contemplating on buying the Kindle Fire, but now I just have to buy it ... The voices "pro" and "contra" have split into almost precise 50/50 - now I just need to have the device so I can make a decision myself. I don't have any book reader yet at all - I have to start somewhere.
If you mainly want an e-reader, I recommend one of the other Kindles that has an E Ink display, which is wonderful. The Fire doesn't have an E Ink display.
e-ink is wonderful, until you turn the page or you turn off the lamp that's next to you.
Everyone tells me you get used to the e-ink flash, and I hear it's gotten much better, but it still kinda stinks.
Most of my reading is done in bed or on my couch, neither of which has great reading light. The LCD is perfect for this.
Maybe it's the years I've spent in front of a computer, but staring at a screen in the dark doesn't bother me at all. Maybe I'll regret it someday.
I'm also really impressed with how Amazon took the physical buttons (menu, back, and home) off the actual device and made them part of the UI by tapping a little arrow at the bottom of the screen.
Yes, the power button is misplaced, but overall I am very satisfied with this $199 tablet that I am finding myself using pretty often so far.