Kindle Fire from Amazon to Fight Apple iPad with Price!
CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled three new devices, all of which retail below the $200 price point. Amazon’s mantra for this season seems to be “making premium products at non premium prices”. The new announcements include two e-ink readers, Kindle, Kindle Touch (with 3G of course) and a full-colored Android Tablet – Kindle Fire.
Kindle Fire is Amazon’s long-awaited leap into the already crowded tablet market. Powered by Android, and specs that are comparable with Research and Motion’s Blackberry Playbook for just $199! It might have the potential to be a value for money tablet that everyone would want.
Kindle Fire Specifications:
- 1GHz TI OMAP dual-core CPU
- 512 MB of RAM
- 8GB of internal flash storage
- 7 inch IPS Gorilla Glass scratch resistive display
- Amazon AppStore
- Free Access to Amazon Cloud Storage
Wilson Rothman managed to get a shot of Kindle Fire alongside Blackberry Playbook, and I must admit, it looks a bit sleeker than the Playbook. The user interface looks nothing like Android, thanks to all the custom skinning done by Amazon. Would it have a shot at Apple’s iPad 2? Along with 18 million pieces of content in the appstore (which includes games, apps, movies, TV shows and music), Amazon is pitching its new tablet with what they call “Amazon Silk Browser”
What is Amazon Silk?
Amazon Silk is a cloud-accelerated browser that splits the computational power required to render each web page between the device and Amazon’s massive infrastructure of computer. It works more or less like Opera Turbo and speeds up mobile browsing experience by compressing heavy components and makes dynamic assessments to either execute certain elements of the page remotely or run locally on the device.
Kindle Fire Cons?
Lack of 3G, and camera is a major letdown. Looks like Amazon’s AppStore will completely replace Android Market, which means you’ll be missing out on apps that haven’t partnered with Amazon.
Will it hurt iPad’s Market Share?
The device doesn’t seem to be as polished iOS-powered iPad, but for those who cannot justify a $500 iPad, Fire makes perfect sense. Only time will tell, if Fire will generate enough buzz to erode sales away from iPad! Do you think Amazon’s price-point will convince average consumers to consider Kindle Fire? Tell us through comments!
