Amazon just destroyed the tablet market as we know it
AlexDeGruven
Wut?Meechigan Icrontian
With the release of the subsidized <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051VVOB2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=icrontic-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0051VVOB2">$200 Kindle Fire</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=icrontic-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0051VVOB2&camp=217145&creative=399373" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />, how long do we think the lower-end of the tablet market is going to survive?
All the big players who were marketing their ~7" tablets for $300+ have now just been shown the door.
ZDNet has a good article describing how the fallout is probably going to shake out: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/amazons-kindle-fire-just-nuked-the-tablet-market-winners-and-losers/59147
Not that I didn't feel bad for them already, but now I REALLY pity anyone who bought a Playbook.
All the big players who were marketing their ~7" tablets for $300+ have now just been shown the door.
ZDNet has a good article describing how the fallout is probably going to shake out: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/amazons-kindle-fire-just-nuked-the-tablet-market-winners-and-losers/59147
Not that I didn't feel bad for them already, but now I REALLY pity anyone who bought a Playbook.
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It plays in a different space until Cyanogen and crew get ahold of it.
It's definitely stronger than the Nook color both in spec's and app availability already. Once it gets unlocked to run a stock-ish version of Android, it's going to be something else entirely.
Unless Ars is wrong, it's getting 3.1.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/09/amazon-to-unveil-199-70inch-kindle-fire-tablet.ars
Getting CM on a kindle does not effect the market at large.
If it supports ADB (which it's unlikely NOT to), it's only a matter of time.
This. Exactly. Consider that CyanogenMod has less than 1,000,000 unique installations since the project's inception. What fraction of that does anyone think went to the nook? 5000? 10000? And how many is that when compared to the tens of millions of tablets sold?
Hacked tablets are a drop in the bucket of a drop in the bucket.
I still haven't found a compelling reason to buy a tablet other than being able to sit on a couch and read an article or book easily. And that's certainly not worth $1000.
It plays in the space that most people care about. It browses the web, emails, reads, plays music and video, offers casual games. It does all this, its priced right (its an impulse buy at $199), it has the worlds finest digital content distribution model behind it with fuss free cloud storage. The Kindle Fire is going to change everything.
Or, how have Amazon crippled the Fire?
My flatmate's/sister's/dad's computers do near nothing but music, videos, email and surfing. They could pick up a kindle fire and never notice that angry birds was coming from amazons app store rather than the android market.
I'm sure they can, but choose not to. Limiting the platform can be a good thing in many ways. It offers simplicity, and its focus is on doing what it does well, instead of doing everything. The Kindle Fire is a real tablet, its just doing things differently.
Plus, consider this, you know there is going to be cloud based application development. Without a doubt it will have apps and the local hardware will not be a limiting factor. The platform will evolve given time. Most exciting of all, everything about the delivery model is better, everything!
It's the same cloud based model that Apple and Google dabble in but are not fully committed to. Amazon is going to push the chips in and say, people are ready for this, and I guarantee you, once you start getting your content with whispersync you are not going to want to go back. It's the greatest content delivery model ever.
I'm not going out on a limb when I say this..... The Kindle Fire is the next Ipod, it's going to be that big, everyone will have one, and everyone will want to purchase digital content with Amazon. It's going to be a game changer. Check with me in a year when Amazon is the number one distributor for every kind of digital content imaginable except for 3D games and Pronz.....
I disagree with Cliff's assessment that Kindle Fire is the next iPod. The reason why iPod did so well was because everyone knew what that device did, and they knew it augmented the way they were currently doing it - it was a music player, and it was a simple solution that replaced that one thing that everone already had: CD players.
The Kindle Fire isn't that simple to the average Joe. If you showed my mom the Kindle Fire and said "hey, look at this device. Do you want it?" She would say no. She wouldn't know what to do with a device like that by just simply looking at it or reading about it. The iPod was different. You held that up to my mother and she would immediately realize how it improved her music listening experience over a CD player.
Music is for everyone. Tablets are not. We won't see the kind of adoption Apple had for the Fire.
I'll bet you a six pack.
I'd rearrange that a little and say that people are far more willing to buy a $200 reader that looks like (read: is) a tablet than buy a $1000 tablet. If it has access to the Amazon Appstore, then it will do what most people do with a tablet. The only missing feature I think average Joes might care about is Bluetooth. Nobody will miss the desktop. This whole rooting & flashing business? More people would do it if they needed to in order to use the device how they wanted, but it'll already do just about everything.
Precisely. Now, they just need to market the hell out of it if they want it to "change everything." iPads have a shitton of mindshare and while that's an obstacle, their biggest market is probably people who don't have tablets yet. I hope they're at least successful enough to drive the prices down of other good tablets.
All your browsing actually happens on Amazon's servers. As in, the SSL connection isn't to your Fire. It's to an Amazon EC2 instance that relays it to your Fire. You thought Google and Failbook knowing every website you visited was bad? Amazon's tablet is even worse. Suddenly their efforts in hiring mathematicians and specialties related to behavior analysis make sense.
No sale.
These aren't foundational features, though. Real cars have satellite navigation, twin turbos, and all-wheel drive, but they represent a small proportion of cars sold. Because utility is #1.
True, it's not exactly like the iPod. It's anyone's guess where the market saturation point is. But, Amazon was savvy to stay out until now. Apple and Android tablet manufacturers have already done most of the hard work of convincing people tablets were a thing people needed.
That'd keep me from buying one, too. I wonder if it'll become a bigger deal.
You won't need it, it's all on the cloud.
Browsers available on the Amazon App Store (included on the Fire, no sideloading needed):
Dolphin Mini
Opera
Opera Mini
xScope
Sideloading opens a whole world of anything that will run on 3.1 honeycomb.
You don't HAVE to use Silk.
Personally, I'd load Opera or Dolphin and use that for anything I want to do SSL with or needs privacy, and use Silk for anything I want to perform better.
I think people are confusing the term "Included Browser" with "The only browser supported on the device".
Just like the rooting conversation, I think we're confusing users like us with most users. Most users will use the included browser. Choosing to use another browser because it's my preference is fine, but having to choose another because my device manufacturer might be spying on me is something else.
Privacy on the internet is about as real as the tooth fairy, it's a little fib we tell ourselves so we sleep better at night. I don't care how the browser functions, if you are requesting data its all being recorded somewhere, somehow and if that data has perceived value to the company's that traffic that data, its getting shared, traded and sold and there is not one thing we can do to stop it. It cracks me up when people get all bent out of shape over a little change to the facebook privacy policy. Do people really think that policy makes a lick of difference? The policy's only purpose is to help the public maintain its delusional belief that somehow all personal data is safe in some magic lock box that nobody else can see. Come on, how would anyone have a clue what happens to all that data? If they want to mine our data to share or sell to advertisers, how on earth would we know? How would we stop it? Guess what folks, WE CAN'T! We wield absolutely no power against these multi billion dollar corporations that find value in what we do online.
Learn to stop worrying and love the bomb. It's the only option we all have, unless we are going to straight up quit the internet.