Reply to: kindle fire tablet £130 but will it be any good?

[PAH]

Amazon implements BT Phorm

Amazon's Silk looks creepily Phorm-ulaic ? The Register

If you buy a Fire device, think carefully as to whether your privacy is worth trading for a few milliseconds faster web surfing experience

WHS. I think I'll hold fire on this one.

[PAH]

devices like the Kindle are a sideline which are heavily subsidised, because they help to sell content.

The Kindle Fire is made by the same manufacturer that makes the PlayBook (an outfit called Quanta). The PlayBook sells at $499; the Fire at $199. It's clear Amazon aren't expecting to make a profit on the hardware.

Ballsy move. Similar to Sony and the PS3. Sony only started making a profit on them in 2010, 3 years after introduction.

PS3 finally ready to yield profit for each sold | Crave - CNET

As recently as February, Sony was still losing around $18 per every PlayStation 3 sold.

The problem with Amazon's tablet is people can get content from other sources.

Maybe the iTunes style app that comes with the tablet will be easy enough to use that people don't bother doing price comparisons elsewhere.

Not sure how much better that is than just supplying a free Amazon app installed with every compatible device they sold, like some PC sellers have been doing for years.

[TimberWolf]

I can see them being sold out and the price being bumped up by the time they've arrived on our shores.

[NickFitz]

So they're trying to do an iTunes/iPad type lock-in.

More that they're doing the flip side of Apple's approach.

Apple's business is selling hardware; content is a sideline, which makes them negligible amounts of profit but helps to sell the devices. (TL;DR: Gross revenue of $28.3 billion for the quarter ending August 2011, of which just $1.4 billion was from iTunes store sales - about 5%; but Apple still have to pay the content owner from that gross revenue, as well as pay their own operating expenses.)

Amazon's business is selling content; devices like the Kindle are a sideline which are heavily subsidised, because they help to sell content.

The Kindle Fire is made by the same manufacturer that makes the PlayBook (an outfit called Quanta). The PlayBook sells at $499; the Fire at $199. It's clear Amazon aren't expecting to make a profit on the hardware.

[PAH]

I seem to recall Amazon have been known to peremptorily delete content from your reader, in the event of a dispute

Yep, they withdrew '1984'. Either pure irony or someone in charge has a naughty sense of humour.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...on-kindle-1984

For this reason, and the fact that the Kindle automatically informs Amazon of any content loaded onto it, under the pretence of 'backing up to the cloud', I've turned off the WiFi (don't have 3G) and only use the USB to transfer and delete content.

Turning off WiFi also makes the battery last much longer.

[PAH]

All shown together here:
Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

Easy to hold in one hand

So they're calling their audience s.

[OwlHoot]

Amazon apps.

It's a loss leader to get you to buy music, movies (remember Amazon UK own lovefilm) and e-books.

Exactly - You'll be bombarded with ads each time you buy something, or even open it.

Also, I seem to recall Amazon have been known to peremptorily delete content from your reader, in the event of a dispute (although in fairness I may have remembered wrong, and that may have been some other provider).

[d000hg]

I thought the new non-keypad version had basic touch capability, to allow an onscreen keyboard?

I read it as non-touch, with just the 5-dir 'joypad' control but no proper keypad...

[Lumiere]

Personally I think the Kindle Fire is a bit of disaster if they drop the unique selling point they had with e-ink but we will see.

They hadn't. Most of the e-books had e-ink already. The unique selling point was the price and, partly, the "free international web" option. That's how they snatched the market share from Sony's e-books.

[TimberWolf]

So they're bringing out more e-ink Kindles and they all look much the same but have one or more of the following:

• WiFi
• 3G
• no 3G
• no touchscreen
• touchscreen
• keyboard
• no keyboard

Yep, that won't be confusing to the masses at all.

All shown together here:
Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

[PAH]

So they're bringing out more e-ink Kindles and they all look much the same but have one or more of the following:

• WiFi
• 3G
• no 3G
• no touchscreen
• touchscreen
• keyboard
• no keyboard

Yep, that won't be confusing to the masses at all.

[TimberWolf]

The UK isn't getting the touch or fire versions for a while.

Order it from Amazon.com?

[eek]

Ah, didn't think of those as I prefer using other methods for the above.

If you don't use the keyboard the new £89 version is usable (although the memory and battery is smaller than the keyboard version).

The UK isn't getting the touch or fire versions for a while.

[PAH]

The keyboard is pretty useful when you want to:

• Buy books using your Kindle rather than the PC
• Use the basic web browser (handles gmail well)

Ah, didn't think of those as I prefer using other methods for the above.

I don't think a non-touch, non-keypad version is very good.

I thought the new non-keypad version had basic touch capability, to allow an onscreen keyboard?

That maybe more misinterpretation of information due to them merging two very different products into one Kindle announcement.

[d000hg]

As the new version is only a tenner more if pre-ordered, this is only really worth considering if you need the keyboard (only useful for annotations).

The keyboard is pretty useful when you want to:

• Buy books using your Kindle rather than the PC
• Use the basic web browser (handles gmail well)

I don't think a non-touch, non-keypad version is very good.