The latest to grace us with its presence is the highly anticipated Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon. What I can’t seem to fathom is why exactly any new tablet that is rumored about and then launched is somehow designated as some sort of iPad killer. It’s ridiculous in some cases and the hype in the industry just now, comparing the Kindle with the iPad, is just plain ludicrous, in my opinion.
Sure the iPad set a precedence for the industry and even I will admit that it definitely is at the top of the list with devices like the Galaxy Tab 750 and Motorola Xoom coming in at second place. I do understand that any new tablet that launches will eat into the overall market share of the “almighty” iPad, but that’s only because the world simply has another option to choose. Comparing the two devices doesn’t make logical sense. The Fire is quite clearly not in the same league even though it has quite a decent set of specs. I would however, choose to compare it with the likes of the HTC Flyer or the upcoming Galaxy Tab 8.9 which could be serious competition. Let’s just leave the PlayBook out of this to save RIM some ridicule about its poor sales figures.
What's all the fuss about?
What does the ‘over-hyped’ Kindle Fire offer that makes it a ‘worthy competitor’ for the big players? Is Amazon’s Cloud service truly that spectacular that it should merit so much attention? Or is it just because a popular brand like Amazon has entered into the fray and the community has been craving new blood? Of course the biggest question is what does all this mean for the Indian consumer? We were denied the official consumption of the Kindle e-Book Reader and had to resort to alternative means for purchase. With that in mind, we need to anticipate the chances of this device making it here just to see if it’s actually worth all the fuss. Although Amazon’s Cloud storage is available to us, it’s quite unclear whether their streaming video service and Amazon Prime will be made available even if the Fire does make it here.
The Kindle Fire is no more than a Dual-Core tablet that will no doubt be speedy and comfortable to use. I am however, looking forward to seeing the rather impressive looking UI in action which is, no doubt, the most customized UI out there apart from HTC Sense. There, I said it. But that’s about it. The lack of a camera, additional storage space and 3G connectivity makes it quite mundane, for lack of a better term. The latter feature makes the Amazon Cloud and streaming service quite redundant in a country where Wi-Fi hotspots are hard to come by and 8GB of space is not all too impressive either. Perhaps a 3G device is in the works, but that’s a big hopeful.
Suffice to say, I’m not totally impressed with Amazon’s new offering. While there’s enough to merit it with competition to the smaller tablets, I believe the iPad has nothing to seriously be worried about. There’s also the question of the ridiculously low pricing which, if it were to be sold here, would surely be a whole lot more. Keeping my fingers crossed, I estimate the Fire to be in the Rs. 15,000 price range where it will compete with the likes of the iBall Slide, the Reliance 3G Tab and the Beetel Magiq. What this specific product has the potential to do is help make future and possibly existing Android tablet prices take a further dip. As it is, devices like the Reliance 3G Tab and Magiq are already priced reasonably enough for most users to afford, and they aren’t ones you can easily ignore either.
I wouldn’t compare the Fire with the iPad, but should the Fire be made available (easily) to us on this side of the big pond, I just might consider the investment.
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