Amazon's new tablet, the Kindle Fire

[Jr Mouse]

Story is developing but Bloomberg has posted the first details on Amazon's new tablet. 7 inches and priced at $199.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-28/amazon-unveils-199-kindle-fire-tablet.html?cmpid=bit

Liveblog: http://live.thisismynext.com/Event/Amazon_Tablet_event_live_blog

Price is much more aggressive then what was rumored. I'm curious about the screen resolution and weight of the device, but this could be a game changer. Amazon certainly has the marketing reach and solid distribution model for it.

More commentary as this plays out.

 

[Rambo]

Looks like the Fire is just a stop gap until the new tablet comes out next year.

The Kindle Touch looks to be the most interesting product so far.

 

[Jr Mouse]



Looks like the Fire is just a stop gap until the new tablet comes out next year.

The Kindle Touch looks to be the most interesting product so far.

Are you kidding? The Fire looks fantastic. $199 is an unbelievable price and I am loving what they did with the custom UI. The videos show it to be silky smooth and highly optimized. Weight is under a pound too so this is going to be much nicer to hold then the majority of other tablets on the market. Amazon is going to sell a shitload of these. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb here and say their tablet line will eventually take over 2nd place just behind Apple in hardware sales.

I heard the rumors of a new tablet coming next year from Amazon, but think everyone is taking it out of context. Companies are always working on the next product and Amazon has shown they are willing to sell a diversified line-up of Kindles. More then likely the one being rumored is a 10 inch model, which would make sense.

 

[Jr Mouse]

First impressions seem very positive:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/28/i-want-this-tablet/

http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-tablet-pictures-videohands-on/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/amazon-kindle-fire-impressions/

 

[Xericx]

I pre-ordered one. don't have a tablet, hopefully this should be good enough.

 

[javyn]

This looks like more of a Nook Color killer than a iPad killer. Screen size is too small.

After holding an iPad 2, I wouldn't accept anything with a height less than that...9.5"

 

[StephenHero]

Impressive lineup of affordable toys, but my TouchPad is the smallest I'd go. I'd prefer an 8.5" x 11" tablet. Browsing on anything smaller is just a pain **********.

 

[javyn]



Impressive lineup of affordable toys, but my TouchPad is the smallest I'd go. I'd prefer an 8.5" x 11" tablet. Browsing on anything smaller is just a pain **********.

For the first time ever, +1 Stephen, +1

7" screen, unless I'm mistaken, would render it about useless for PDF reading.

 

[Jr Mouse]

I think there is a market for 7 inch tablets. Some people want something that can still fit in a jacket pocket. Plus the size helps with weight. It's well under a pound. That will make it great for reading with one hand. Any heavier and it can start to bother you.

They already said this is just the first version. Expect a 10 inch one soon.

 

[javyn]

I was coveting the Kindle DX for a while, but the price scared the hell out of me lol

 

[Trompe le Monde]

gizmodo is gushing about the performance and quality of this tablet
http://gizmodo.com/5844623/amazon-kindle-fire-tablet-will-cost-a-shocking-199

besides the tablet itself, as chief bezos says, this device is not a tablet, its about service delivery, and amazon has their media "ecosystem" as broad and diverse as apple does.

per weight, the ipad is from 600 - 730 grams; fire is 410

the size is a plus... it will fit in a jacket for quick errands around town. i have a smartphone to serve as a personal hot spot to feed 4G connectivity to it. only wish? better battery life.


i paid 250$ for the 2nd generation kindle... at 200$ this was too tempting. pre-ordered one, should be arriving days before a long vacation in turkey :foo:

 

[Rambo]



This looks like more of a Nook Color killer than a iPad killer. Screen size is too small.

Exactly

 

[Jr Mouse]

double post.

 

[Jr Mouse]

We will see an additional 10 inch model from Amazon soon. Probably right after Christmas. Releasing the 7 inch model at the start was a brilliant move. It keeps the weight way down, makes it easier to carry and allows for cheaper pricing. The Fire will be much easier to hold for long periods of time. I can see why people would want a 10 inch tablet, but that does not mean there is not a market for 7 inch devices.

The pricing is key here. $200 is impulse territory and a lot of people who can't stomach $500 will have no problem buying this tablet. Remember the gold rush for HP Touchpads? Well this is within the same price range, yet unlike the Touchpad it’s not a dead end platform. It's going to be marketed everywhere and I promise you that in a year's time Amazon will have the 2nd best selling tablet line, right behind Apple. No Android tablets will even come close.

The thing to remember is this device is being sold at a different angle then the iPad. The iPad is being sold as a laptop alternative. They position it as a possible productivity device. This Amazon Fire is much more about media consumption. There is no reason you couldn't be productive on it with the right apps, but that's not really how Amazon envisions it.

I actually think this looks like a MUCH better experience then the iPad from that key standpoint. The UI is fantastic and is built around your media that is displayed front and center all the time. Easy to find and use. Individual movies, books and songs are just as prominent on the “desktop” as the apps are. Contrast this to the iPad. Media on Apple’s device feels like a more disjointed experience. You have to open different apps to access different type of media. It's secondary to the overall experience with the OS. Each strategy has advantages and disadvantages, but I think Amazon is really onto something here with the UI.

Now, these are all opinions based on the demos that Amazon has shown. Everything looks silky smooth and highly optimized. Will the final product be this way? Only time will tell, but so far it’s looking great.

The only big downer for me, I see with the hardware is the lack of bluetooth. My iPhone speaker dock has it built in and I like to stream songs to it over the wireless protocol. Maybe a future model will rectify this.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the cloud services that Amazon is talking about here look to be pure gravy. It's the first cloud strategy that I have seen for a tablet that feels like it could realistically allow the user to never have to worry about on board storage capacity.

 

[Rambo]

Interesting to think of the privacy implications of this thing...