Battle of the Tablets: Apple iPad Vs. Amazon Kindle!

[HoosierGuy]

In this corner is the mighty and powerful Apple Ipad. World Heavyweight in the tablet competition. So far the iPad is undefeated! It's slick, does almost everything, and expensive too!

And it's new challenger - The brand new Amazon Kindle FIRE!!!!!!!!! The Kindle is smaller, but swifter and newer and backed by a great trainer - amazon.com!!! And it's cheaper too!

Seriously, I can't believe there has been so much commotion about an e-reader/tablet. I don't have an iPad because of the cost but it sounds like tablets are going to become more popular in the near future.

Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet - Bloomberg

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), the world’s largest online retailer, unveiled its Kindle Fire tablet computer, taking aim at Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s bestselling iPad with a device that’s smaller and less than half the price.

The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad, Amazon executives said in interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek. The device, a souped-up version of the Kindle electronic-book reader, will run on Google Inc.’s Android software, the Seattle-based company said. Amazon also introduced a touch-screen version of its e-reader, to be called Kindle Touch.

Another good article on it:

New Kindle Fire: Amazon introduces tablet for Everyman (and every kid) - CSMonitor.com

[pam]

I know John Doe is getting old..but I think he could have read the first 2 paragraphs with the regular font. :)

[Guest mormonmusic]

My class was talking about this tonight. They said that NPR had a piece on the Fire, and said Amazon is selling them at "fire sale" prices (a loss) so it will boost sales of items from their Amazon store. Sure does strike a big blow to the margins of the tablet computing industry when you release something that is in the same "domain" of functionality, at less than half the price.

[john doe]

I know John Doe is getting old..but I think he could have read the first 2 paragraphs with the regular font. :)

I can fix it if you want. I don't like people yelling in these forums.

[rameumptom]

I've already told my wife I want a new Amazon Touch for Christmas. I don't need the Kindle Fire, because I have a netbook for doing all the extra stuff. But a quality ebook reader for only $99? Awesome!!!!!

[HoosierGuy]

I can fix it if you want. I don't like people yelling in these forums.

I was mimicking a boxing match. You know - Lets get ready to rumbleeeeee!!!!

Hopefully the $200 price for the new Kindle Fire will lead to other tablets being offered at a lower cost. As the C.S.M. article says, $200 might be the right amount for parents to buy it for their kids. But there is no camera in it or microphone. The important thing for me is - will be it user friendly when reading digital books and magazines?

[Guest mormonmusic]

I suspect it will excel at user friendliness for reading. That is what Amazon is all about at its core. My concern is that it won't be all that great for other tasks that are performed on tablets that don't have to do with reading since that's peripheral to Amazon's core competency. But they keep on impressing me with their ideas overall - like Google. Just today I got a local deal from Amazon for 3 hours of cleaning for $75.00. A LOCAL deal. That's a big stretch into a new domain of marketing.

[LittleWyvern]

I'm still waiting for amazon to release a color e-ink display e-reader.

[john doe]

I was mimicking a boxing match. You know - Lets get ready to rumbleeeeee!!!!

I know what you were trying to do. But extra-large type and/or excessive use of capitol letters is considered yelling.

[HoosierGuy]

I think these tablets could, if done right, help the newspaper industry. When it comes to newspapers all we hear about is how they are losing money and losing subscribers because of the internet and other things. Every newspaper in the country needs to make their paper available on those tablets. The newspaper companies would be smart if they went to the tablet companies like Amazon and Apple and work with them to make their tablets work well with digital newspapers.

[Blackmarch]

In this corner is the mighty and powerful Apple Ipad. World Heavyweight in the tablet competition. So far the iPad is undefeated! It's slick, does almost everything, and expensive too!

And it's new challenger - The brand new Amazon Kindle FIRE!!!!!!!!! The Kindle is smaller, but swifter and newer and backed by a great trainer - amazon.com!!! And it's cheaper too!

Seriously, I can't believe there has been so much commotion about an e-reader/tablet. I don't have an iPad because of the cost but it sounds like tablets are going to become more popular in the near future.

Amazon Unveils $199 Kindle Fire Tablet - Bloomberg

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), the world’s largest online retailer, unveiled its Kindle Fire tablet computer, taking aim at Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s bestselling iPad with a device that’s smaller and less than half the price.

The Kindle Fire will have a 7-inch display and sell for $199, compared with $499 for Apple’s cheapest iPad, Amazon executives said in interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek. The device, a souped-up version of the Kindle electronic-book reader, will run on Google Inc.’s Android software, the Seattle-based company said. Amazon also introduced a touch-screen version of its e-reader, to be called Kindle Touch.

Another good article on it:

New Kindle Fire: Amazon introduces tablet for Everyman (and every kid) - CSMonitor.com

Well it probably dooms all the other ipad competitors... it will probably bite a good chunk out of ipad consumerism, but in the end i don't think it will hit it hard enough to be a game changer.

What the iPad does, it does very well.

[Captain_Curmudgeon]

I don't think the Fire is intended to challenge the iPad, or, if it is, it's doing a bad job.

It's really a high-end Kindle intended to challenge the B&N Nook, which I think it knocks out in the first round.

Or if it does challenge the iPad, then the iPad has got to be the most terrible rip-off in recent history.

The manufacturing cost of the Fire has been reported to be $209.63, which means Kindle loses ten bucks for every one it sells.

(I'm sticking with my Kindle 3, WiFi, now "Kindle Keyboard.")

Edited October 1, 2011 by Captain_Curmudgeon
left out the ')'

[ChooseTheSun]

I use my iPad every day -- truly a life changer!

At work I can show patients app info on a large screen. Easy to read and fun.

Out and about with the kiddos I can toss the iPad their way if needed. Makes time fly, and the screen is big enough to share.

Any book I want is available. Plus all the movies, music, apps.... No contest!

[HoosierGuy]

I use my iPad every day -- truly a life changer!

At work I can show patients app info on a large screen. Easy to read and fun.

Out and about with the kiddos I can toss the iPad their way if needed. Makes time fly, and the screen is big enough to share.

Any book I want is available. Plus all the movies, music, apps.... No contest!

That's all good! But there is a large group of people who can't afford the $500 to $700 but can afford the $200.00. I agree with the C.S.M. article link I posted - at $200 it might attract parents to buy it for their kids.

[dahlia]

We have a tech 'lending library' in my program because so many libraries are going to ebooks, the students need to get familiar with the different delivery systems. I just tried a Nook for a week and wasn't impressed. I bought my mother a Kindle last year and played with it before sending it to her (I loaded it with music and books before sending it). I just don't see having a Nook when the Kindle works so well.

I have an iPad and was looking at the Kindle Fire for my son. I think for the money, the Fire is a pretty nifty tool. My concern was did it read PDFs, which are used a lot in academic library databases when you download an article - it does, so it's a machine that makes sense for him. I got my iPad through a tech grant from my uni. It took me awhile to find the apps that work for me, but now that I have, I wouldn't be without it. If I didn't have iPad money, I might consider the Fire, but I'd need to know what productivity apps you can get for it, if at all. I need something that will do more than just let me read. And when I want to read, there's a Kindle in the iPad, so I get the best of both worlds.

I'd say that if money is an object and you don't need productivity (assuming the Fire doesn't have those apps), then the Fire seems pretty neat. If you need to work, an iPad is the way to go. If the Fire has productivity apps, then it seems like a worthy contender against the iPad, but we'll see. There's something to be said for market share. There's a long way to go and a lot to do before any company beats Apple at its own game. I detest Apple for the proprietary, overly expensive, elitist pigs that they are, but darn that iPad is a good product.

[tubaloth]

If the Kindle Fire was 10inches you would have a contender. Not until you play with a tablet its really hard to judge how the size does matter for things. With it only being 7inches the primary function of the Kindle Fire is for reading. Yes you can play some games on it. But even then its really just an oversize phone. I have a 10 inch asus Transformer and even for books I can't see having it much smaller. The real key to having it smaller allows it to weigh less which is a plus.

The Fire also doesn't have any cameras. That really shouldn't be that big of deal, but it does limit what the tablet can do. Most tablets don't have that great of camera anyways (most cell phone cameras are now better). It does show where they are cutting the costs.

The real key is the Amazon Silk Browser. I still feel people aren't going to like surfing the web on a 7in screen. But the Silk Browser uses Amazon's severs to cache your internet and even help render WebPages. In theory this allows for some web pages to load quicker and to allow less processing, thus better battery life. It does sound like Amazon might try to bring the browser to other tablets.

I don't think this is going to hurt tablet sells unless the reason you buy a tablet is for reading. I think its mostly aimed at e-readers like the nook. (I haven't tried the actually nook but have tried the app on my tablet, I find the kindle app way better).

If the Fire came out in a 10in version, I think we might have something. But with it only being 7 inches its still targeted at readers, not at the tablet community.

Edited October 2, 2011 by tubaloth

[tubaloth]

I think these tablets could, if done right, help the newspaper industry. When it comes to newspapers all we hear about is how they are losing money and losing subscribers because of the internet and other things. Every newspaper in the country needs to make their paper available on those tablets. The newspaper companies would be smart if they went to the tablet companies like Amazon and Apple and work with them to make their tablets work well with digital newspapers.

It actually does

Amazon.com: Kindle Newspapers

I do wish the Church had a way to get the Church magazines on a tablet easier. (it wouldn't surprise me they are working on something). I can download the magazine in PDF and view it on my tablets pretty well. As you can guess this is more of a viewer then an actually reader.

I probably would pay for such a feature. If people started getting the magazine for free (like I can right now) Thats going to hurt.

Edited October 2, 2011 by tubaloth