Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet to retail at $199
Budget price for 7-inch tablet to undercut Apple's iPad
Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet is to hit US retail priced at $199.
The company has announced the new hardware at a press conference today, as reported by Bloomberg, with the price as a USP to undercut Apple's $499 iPad.
The tablet comes with a 7-inch display and runs Google's Android OS. It lacks 3G access but does have WiFi connectivity and will ship with a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, the subscription service that offers streaming video, and grant access to Amazon's App Store for games and other content.
As a media consumption device, tablets are awesome. Android honeycomb has a great interface, but there just aren't enough apps for it yet - and, given the lackluster sales figures, I'm not surprised. I also get the impression Google has lost interest in Android for tablets tbh.
The main reason I bought the iPad was to watch hockey in bed, as the games start at midnight here - it's easier to watch in it bed where I can fall asleep halfway through, than watch it on the TV. I could have used a laptop, but then you have heat issues. Magazines are also great on it - I have the Economist, Popular Science and the Atlantic. Then you have streaming radio apps, etc - my ipad sits on a stand on my desk during the day, and I can easily listen to stations from all over the world without having to use recourses on my laptop.
It really depends on what you expect from a tablet. You can use it for basic emailing etc, but it's not really a work device, whatever Apple and the others say. But for media consumption, a tablet is great.
I've already arranged for friends to grab me a couple of Kindle Fires from the states. They'll make awesome Christmas presents, especially for people who use kindle on, say, their ipod touches/iphones, but don't want a 10 inch tablet.
@ Rick. You say tablets are expensive for what they're worth. You're right, but I suppose they're worth different things to different people, depending on what they'll use them for?