Kindle fire: setting the world alight?
Amazon and Apple, two technological titans, are flexing their muscles. Yes, it’s Tablet Time, as they both get ready to rumble. Apple’s new iPhone (the cause of so much speculation) is to be launched within the next week or so; Amazon, eyeing the competition, is getting in early with its new tablet computer, the Kindle Fire. So could Amazon snatch the golden bough from the current priest-king of Numa? Or will it remain forever nipping at its heels?
Amazon’s also launching two brand spanking new Kindle electronic readers, and a browser aimed at mobile devices, Amazon Silk. But can the Kindle Fire really challenge Apple? The iPad sold 29 million units in 15 months; other pretenders to the fruity crown have long since rotted at the bottom of the barrel where they remain in pungent failure. Anyone remember the Blackberry PlayBook?
The Kindle Fire looked “more like an iPod killer than an iPad killer,” said Avram Piltch, editorial director at Laptop Magazine, and quoted on The Guardian
Ho hum. Don’t get too excited, said The First Post. It may be cheap ($200, or £128) – but it has a tiny screen (7 inches), and only 8 gigabytes of memory; it lacks a camera, and a microphone, and there’s no 3G available. The interface, informed Mashable, in distinctly unexcited tones, looks like a bookshelf.
“We’re building premium products at non-premium prices. We are determined to do that,” Jeff Bezos said bullishly, quoted in The Guardian.
A new priest-king? Bezos is making a bid to be the new Steve Jobs, said Dominic Rushe on The Guardian. The release of the gizmo was attended with all the secrecy and leaks one usually associates with Apple. Bezos was even dressed casually. The Kindle Fire won’t be available in Britain till next year, but it will be a challenger to the iPad, being able to do all the things that it can do – ie browse the web, show films and download magazines and books. It’ll also save all your stuff in the Cloud.
Privacy, schmrivacy.“Kindle Fire is going to be huge,” gushed Cult of Mac. The downside is that Amazon will know what you’re browsing, and will be trying to anticipate what you click on, but whilst some will worry about privacy, “chances are most folk won’t give a damn.”
Showdown with the iPad looming. Molly Wood on Cnet also spoke up the Kindle’s potential. Amazon’s knocked all the Android tablets into a cocked hat; plust, it’s set up a “showdown with the iPad” by making an “entirely new market” – which is exactly what Apple did in the first place.
