Daring Fireball: Amazon's New Kindles

I don't understand this:"The iPad is a credible laptop replacement for many people and with iCloud and another year or two of hardware improvements, that’s going to be true for more and more people. The Kindle Fire is a laptop replacement for almost no one. It’s a peripheral, not a second computer and it’s priced accordingly. " What is it that makes the iPad a possible laptop replacement, but the Fire not? To me, the primary market for people replacing laptops with a tablet are casual users, many of whom care more about content and entertainment than producitivity, in which case it would seem the Fire would be equal to, if not beating, the iPad.

"The iPad and Kindle Fire are emblematic of their makers. Apple’s primary business is selling devices for a healthy profit, and they back that up with a side business of selling digital content for those devices. Amazon’s primary business is as a retailer, including as a retailer of digital content. They back that up with a side business of low-cost digital devices that are optimized for on-the-fly purchasing of anything and everything Amazon sells. The Kindles are to Amazon what the printed catalog was to Sears a century ago."<p>That's the best articulated philosophical breakdown between the two products and the two companies that I've seen. The two devices look similar at a glance, but the reasoning behind their numerous differences boil down entirely to those two different philosophies. Apple wants you to buy an iPad to buy an iPad -- they get you to do that by pointing out how it has apps and music for sale. Amazon wants you to buy a Fire to buy a ton of Amazon digital content -- they get you to do that by making the Fire itself cheap.

I'm amazed by the insight in this article. I'm not generally a huge Gruber fan (nor a hater, I just don't find "Apple released a new x, here's my reaction" very nourishing). But in this I felt like he really nailed the state of tablets and why the Fire will do well and the others won't. Really good stuff.<p>Sadly not analysed is that his central point, taken to its logical conclusion, gives you an obvious field for new iPad competitors. He's correct - nobody's going to beat Apple in hardware design. Nobody's going to beat Apple (for a while anyway) in app market size. What can they beat Apple at? Price and content.<p>Price and content means Sony, Nintendo, Disney, any of the big content players with an untapped market for specific tablets. I don't know if they'll go that way, but there's every reason to think they'd win out if they did.

He's crazy to assume that the Kindle Fire isn't competitive with the iPad, or that the $199 price point isn't going to at least partially inform the pricing of the iPad 3.<p>The days of the $700 tablet are over.

One thing that I have a problem with is the complaints about the Kindle buttons. As much as I see people try and use the Kindle as a touch screen, I would not want it to be. I like the button press because I don't have to move my hand from holding the device. If I had to physically swipe my finger everytime I wanted to move to the next page I could see that being very annoying.<p>The two reasons I really love my Kindle are for the digital distribution and the form factor. I can no longer read paperback books. I find holding them to be just unpleasent and not near as enjoyable as the Kindle. And I think a swipe page turning mechanism is a backward step in how I move through my book.

From another daring-fireball article:<p>Q: How many times does the word “Android” appear on Amazon’s Kindle Fire page?<p>A: Once, in the following sentence: “Additional email apps are available in our Amazon Appstore for Android.” It’s a Kindle tablet, not an Android tablet.

I think the Kindle light is a great idea. I just scooped one myself. I rarely used the keyboard on my original Kindle, plus this one is much slimmer and compact -- awesome. Can't wait for the light to come in.<p>Personally I think a touchpad Kindle with eink is overkill. The touchpad is nice, but I don't see why I would ever need it if I'm just casually reading. That plus I'm a sucker for slimness and the added dimensions killed it for me :)

Not available outside of the US (except for the crippled non-touch version).<p>Poor, poor strategy.<p>That's essentially gifting the market to iOS/Android.<p>I sure as hell won't wait until Amazon deigns to offer one outside.

"You can get a Kindle Fire and a new top-of-the-line e-ink Kindle Touch for less than the price of an iPad. It’s a very different take."<p>But few will want to carry both. This is the one problem with non-general-purpose tablets. Various discussions I've seen today imply, by intent or by chance, getting more than one tablet. To succeed in the long run, users must see the device as My One Tablet - which will include anywhere/anytime Internet connectivity (note the absence of a Fire 3G).

Strange that he does not mention Android at all, maybe its his disdain to the platform, but its a strong advantage .<p>I bet software in the Amazon app store will work right out of the gate, that's a ready made eco system in a new device<p>The fire will benefit from the Android development community. this is a great win. And that Gruber, is what it means that the platform is open. Everybody benefits, and the platform is agile enough to afford different business models

Any idea on details around this:<p><i>Over 100,000 movies and TV shows, including thousands of new releases and your favorite TV shows, are available to stream or download, purchase or rent - all just one tap away. Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, commercial-free streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows.</i><p>As a Netflix user, I know first-hand that quantity doesn't necessarily mean quality. Any idea on what this list actually contains?

I know it's subjective but I think they blew it on the size.

This is what I like to do on daringfireball posts: <a href="http://i.minus.com/iXy1JUUd4GGMz.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.minus.com/iXy1JUUd4GGMz.jpg</a> - and that's pretty much my opinion about them.

Hell must be freezing over, Gruber isn't gratuitously bashing Apple's competitor? It's refreshing to read a new, insightful analysis of his for the first time in a while.