So unless you live under a rock you saw Amazon has some new family members. New Kindle touch and some at a great price. This news is great, something for everyone. Granted if you get the lower priced one you may have to put up with some adds but hey... only 79 bucks!
B&N beat them to the punch on the touch screen Nook and so it was only a matter of time that Amazon jumped in. The surprise to me is the follow-the-big-bookstore-off-the-cliff move with the Amazon Fire.
This is their tablet. If you remember the Color Nook, a sub-par tablet aimed to compete with the iPad. And for anyone with said iPad it was a sorry joke. Smaller screen and so many other things that I will not list them here as I want a short post not a new book.
So after watching B&N leave the eBook race to fight in the tablet wars I was shocked that Amazon followed into this same losing war right behind B&N. Now I get they want to offer the same kind of things as B&N but why put out something lame just because your competition did?
The Kindle touch was a good move, B&N came out with one they came out with three (two but three different versions). B&N comes out with a lame tablet and you... do what? Come out with a lame one as well? Come on Amazon, I love you but get with the program. Why buy this tablet unless I get the same amount of APPs and screen size? Why would I jump the Apple ship for this? Not the price, yeah you are going to kill B&N and if that is your plan good job, but in the long run you just gave Apple more time to be the king of the table market.
Amazon should have waited and come out with this same tablet with the same screen size as the iPad and priced the same as it is now and we would all look the other way on the APP thing as the price would make it worth it. Amazon and Android will get there in that department so it would be a huge win.
As to the other thing no one will talk about is color eInk. We know it can be done and we want it. Yeah the touch is cool for our eReaders but we want a eInk screen full color. Whoever comes out with this first will own, flat out kill everyone else. Why are Amazon and B&N not putting their R&D into this instead of trying to split their forces and fight Apple. Win the eBook war and the tablet war will be a small town along the path to the celestial city.
We don't want a small tablet, we want a low cost iPad or something like it. We don't want a touch eReader, we want Color eInk on the cool non-glare screen.
You hit a double with the New Kindles but struck out with the Fire...
Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.
I hear you and I understand where you are coming from.
ReplyDeleteBut I believe Amazon is following the same model as Apple. They are issuing this weaker tablet (relative to the iPad) so people will fall prey to their ecosystem. Once people have a taste of one-touch buying, free shipping (Amazon Prime), access to Instant Video with Amazon's vast increasing library they will not want to buy another tablet.
Also, by mid-year 2012 Amazon will be issuing their 10 inch version which will match the ipad and will cost much higher. Just like Apple fans, the Amazonians will buy the new tablet because they want all the bells and whistles and the new features. Plus, it will help them enjoy the the benefits and services they have even more.
If I remember correctly, Amazon will only be clearing about $20 for each tablet. But the upswing is the that they will have a stronger foothold into the retail industry. And realistically, the tablet OS will be weak compared to the Apple but it's silk browsing, whispernet sync (with the TV), etc., is something for Amazon to be proud of. Plus their cloud storage program will allow people to load up on material without worrying about storage issues.
Plus, they will be attracting a lot of people who would have never bought a tablet because it was too high. This will send people rushing to buy.
Sophisticated tablet owners or tech-savvy potential owners would never buy a Kindle Fire. But those people are not who they are aiming the Kindle Fire toward.
Good points...
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