There's a new entrant in the internet tablet market. If you've never heard of it, now you know. It's Amazon's KindleFire, an Android powered internet tablet. While the tablet was unveiled a few days ago, it will be officially released for purchase on 15th of November 2011. If you're living in the US, you can pre order $199, meaning you get it after it is released (Nigerians interested, do the conversion to naira yourself). What i find intriguing about the Kindle Fire is that, unlike the kindle, (a previous version of the tab) there is an apparent absence of buttons of any kind. That makes it much like the galaxy tab and the ipad, though the ipad has pretty much one button at the front. You can google it to find out more about it. I don't expect to see it swinging around Naija anytime soon, though

I have actually been looking forward to this moment, This tablet is my best vote at half the price of the least expensive ipad, with so much cool features, i'll definitely be getting one. Amazon released four new products The kindle classic, Kindle Touch (3g version) and the kindle fire. I'll be going for the kindle fire and touch.

I'll believe it's a valid competitor to the iPad and Samsung Tablet when it's been demo'd and tested. So far I haven't seen any independent reviews to convince me.

Djcn:

I have actually been looking forward to this moment, This tablet is my best vote at half the price of the least expensive ipad, with so much cool features, i'll definitely be getting one. Amazon released four new products The kindle classic, Kindle Touch (3g version) and the kindle fire. I'll be going for the kindle fire and touch.

Please mention the 'so much cool features' you're talking about.

The main killer points are the price and the tight integration into Amazon's services. You've already mentioned the price before and the Amazon services (streaming music, video etc) are pretty much US only at release. So what other features?

texazzpete:

Please mention the 'so much cool features' you're talking about.

The main killer points are the price and the tight integration into Amazon's services. You've already mentioned the price before and the Amazon services (streaming music, video etc) are pretty much US only at release. So what other features?

You are asking of Its cool features, well i thought you should know better cos i ve sought of been in an island.
its not just about the price tag, its about offering premium products at non-premium prices.
For a tablet of this kind, its actually worth much more than the price tag.

The kindle fire is the best and most affordable 7'' tablet in existence.

For the ff reasons

Lightweight (almost half the weight of the ubiquitous ipad2)
Fits comfortably in one hand
It has flash
8hrs of battery life
Amazon Silk (loads web pages faster)
Free Amazon Cloud Backup
WhisperSync For Movies and TV Shows
wireless mirroring and native streaming media

Whats more, all these with an Amazon Prime membership, there's definitely no better bargain.

Hey, i sure know it doesn't include "everything" and that's why we'll always need a 2nd generation but for now the
Kindle Fire is a 7-inch tablet in a 10-inch tablet world the Ipad's killer

Djcn:

You are asking of Its cool features, well i thought you should know better cos i ve sought of been in an island.
its not just about the price tag, its about offering premium products at non-premium prices.
For a tablet of this kind, its actually worth much more than the price tag.

The kindle fire is the best and most affordable 7'' tablet in existence.

For the ff reasons

Lightweight (almost half the weight of the ubiquitous ipad2)
Fits comfortably in one hand
It has flash
8hrs of battery life
Amazon Silk (loads web pages faster)
Free Amazon Cloud Backup
WhisperSync For Movies and TV Shows
wireless mirroring and native streaming media

Whats more, all these with an Amazon Prime membership, there's definitely no better bargain.

Hey, i sure know it doesn't include "everything" and that's why we'll always need a 2nd generation but for now the
Kindle Fire is a 7-inch tablet in a 10-inch tablet world the Ipad's killer

Here's a quick tip: Do not be so eager to air your ignorance out in public.

The Amazon kindle fire is nowhere near the 'best 7 inch table in existence'
it lacks a microphone, bluetooth and camera. It has only 8GB and is not expandable. It has no access to the Android market

There are several 7 inch Honeycomb tablets out there with the full google experience and better hardware specs. Not to even mention the imminent Galaxy Tab 7 with a 1.5Ghz dual core processor.

What the Kindle fire has going for it is its price and its access to Amazon's goodies. But as i said earlier, this is nearly useless to Nigerian customers who will not be able to stream music and video from Amazon Prime.

So I ask you again, apart from the price, what other killer features does it have for the Nigerian customer?

Nobody (and I repeat NOBODY!!) is daft enough to call the Kindle Fire an 'iPad Killer'. It probably will help kill several other Android tablets, though, but the iPad will sit very prettily on the top for a while to come.

texazzpete:

Here's a quick tip: Do not be so eager to air your ignorance out in public.

The Amazon kindle fire is nowhere near the 'best 7 inch table in existence'
it lacks a microphone, bluetooth and camera. It has only 8GB and is not expandable. It has no access to the Android market

There are several 7 inch Honeycomb tablets out there with the full google experience and better hardware specs. Not to even mention the imminent Galaxy Tab 7 with a 1.5Ghz dual core processor.

What the Kindle fire has going for it is its price and its access to Amazon's goodies. But as i said earlier, this is nearly useless to Nigerian customers who will not be able to stream music and video from Amazon Prime.

So I ask you again, apart from the price, what other killer features does it have for the Nigerian customer?

Nobody (and I repeat NOBODY!!) is daft enough to call the Kindle Fire an 'iPad Killer'. It probably will help kill several other Android tablets, though, but the iPad will sit very prettily on the top for a while to come.

Looking at your posts, it is very clear, that you are a bigoted ifan and that has always made it difficult for you to adress issues objectively and realistically. Learn to control ur "iemotions" so as to refraim from insults and address issues accordingly.

Firstly. I'm sorry, you have nothing to tell me about the samsung galaxy tab 7.7 which has been my bedtime pet for some days. But ask yourself despite all the buzz, ads and waves, what are the sales indices?

Secondly, be patient enough to read my posts before being prickly. I had earlier mentioned that it won't have everything (u've mentioned then) did you miss that? T[b]he ipad1 sold for a premium but lacked the basic camera which was already a feature in basic phones[/b], or u've forgotten. This is Fire1 why not be patient for the next fire since you know its gonna be an annual affair?
Besides, you need to know that the real solution to storage is the cloud, so what are you shouting about? when you have unlimited storage space in the cloud. Guy, u should know better.


Thirdly, I dont know if Samsung, Apple, Microsoft, HTC and the other top players consider the Nigeria market factor before making their premium devices. Why is your iphone not subsidized by a telecoms operator? What's the no of ipads sold in Nigeria during the last quarter? Why cant you purchase directly from ebay and other online retailers? Why do a number of websites deny you access with your nigeria IP even when you are willing to pay for the services? The list goes on. We're to develop our content tex. The Nigeria market contributes less or nothing and have always lacked the necessary support from the local players and lacks accurate stats for planing and implementation.

Well i might not call it an ipad killer but was perplexed with the dozens of leading newspapers, magazines and blogs titling the "ipad killer", so maybe you should consume them up.

PCmag columnist C.DVORAK, who have always been an apple fanboy since the 80's even said this is the only ipad rival, he has seen.

Before making your next post, why not take in a deep breadth of cool fresh air, think and then post.

Nothing like ipad !

texazzpete:

Here's a quick tip: Do not be so eager to air your ignorance out in public.

The Amazon kindle fire is nowhere near the 'best 7 inch table in existence'
it lacks a microphone, bluetooth and camera. It has only 8GB and is not expandable. It has no access to the Android market

There are several 7 inch Honeycomb tablets out there with the full google experience and better hardware specs. Not to even mention the imminent Galaxy Tab 7 with a 1.5Ghz dual core processor.

What the Kindle fire has going for it is its price and its access to Amazon's goodies. But as i said earlier, this is nearly useless to Nigerian customers who will not be able to stream music and video from Amazon Prime.

So I ask you again, apart from the price, what other killer features does it have for the Nigerian customer?

Nobody (and I repeat NOBODY!!) is daft enough to call the Kindle Fire an 'iPad Killer'. It probably will help kill several other Android tablets, though, but the iPad will sit very prettily on the top for a while to come.

And I tell you, Price is the #1 most important factor.

But seriously, it is relatively cheap! How won't that sway the market in its favour?

i will go for this phone. What's the current exchange rate. let me know the features first. $200 is not much.

unclenna:

i will go for this phone. What's the current exchange rate. let me know the features first. $200 is not much.

It's not a phone please.
Don't bring your ignorance online.
Learn what the device is for first here www.google.com.

damola1:

And I tell you, Price is the #1 most important factor.

naijatecha:

But seriously, it is relatively cheap! How won't that sway the market in its favour?

Cheap Yes, but does it offer value?
Is Amazon's ecosystem powerful enough to rival & take on that of Andriod and Apple?
Only time will tell.

i currently use galaxy tab, there is notting like it

unclenna:

i will go for this phone. What's the current exchange rate. let me know the features first. $200 is not much.

who is this illiterate?

and its sooo cheap too, i predict its gonna give ipad a run for its money, cos of its price. most people just want something stepped down a bit that they can actually afford without doing 79 backflips!!,

unclenna:

i will go for this phone. What's the current exchange rate. let me know the features first. $200 is not much.

hehehe, im sure your cracking a joke man, and its very funny , i like ur sense of humour!!

its WIFI only, just like the nook color.

whilst its not a total deal breaker for me, (i can mifi with my fone), it is for the absolute majority of pple in nigeria.

plus just 8gb? with no expandable storage. and it wont be developer friendly too coso of the absence of SD card. one would need a pc everytime to do anything and recovery will be difficult in the event of mishaps.


so its a niche device, its primarily a reader with fancy bells and whistles and some color.

i mean i like it but when i saw it compared to the nook they had basically the same features only that the nook had a bigger memory and some other things but cant wait for november will be checking it out

The Amazon kindle still falls short of one critical attribute many tablet users have been craving for. It does not have the capacity to sync real-time with Windows based PC application. Simple everyday tasks such as running office and adobe apps on the projector seem impossible.
I hope the release of windows 8 Tablet version will solve this problems and make the tablet a real PC with a micro form factor.
I can't wait for devices running Windows 8. Did some testing at the lab and the results look promising. I hope the final product doesn't disappoint.

Absolute crap. What's the point of it? Save for the tight integration with Amazon services it's DOA.
Why buy a device you cannot access Android market with when you can find one with access the the market and then download a Kindle app.

GALAXY TAB/IPAD any day

texazzpete:

Please mention the 'so much cool features' you're talking about.

The main killer points are the price and the tight integration into Amazon's services. You've already mentioned the price before and the Amazon services (streaming music, video etc) are pretty much US only at release. So what other features?

Thank you ooh!

I swear to God, if one more person tell me how "cool" the features are I'm gonna punch their mouth!!

How can anyone compare this to the ipad?? It looks and feels like those leapPads for kids

Will this work outside of the US? At the moment, no.

Does it have 3g? No, only wifi.

Can you do as much with it as you can with an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab? No, much more restricted.

So for now it really isn't much competition for the iPad or Galaxy Tab. Plus the Kindle Fire will only be as good as its reviews, regardless of the specs.

unclenna:

i will go for this phone. What's the current exchange rate. let me know the features first. $200 is not much.

Where is dis Okoro frm??lwkmd4h

unclenna:

i will go for this phone. What's the current exchange rate. let me know the features first. $200 is not much.

look at this illiterate, i love your sense of humor

4llerbuntu:

its WIFI only, just like the nook color.

whilst its not a total deal breaker for me, (i can mifi with my fone), it is for the absolute majority of pple in nigeria.

plus just 8gb? with no expandable storage. and it wont be developer friendly too coso of the absence of SD card. one would need a pc everytime to do anything and recovery will be difficult in the event of mishaps.


so its a niche device, its primarily a reader with fancy bells and whistles and some color.

U nailed it,jst exactly my point.

The Kindle fire is not just about price any more than the Ipad is about hardware. The reason why I believe the Kindle Fire would be the tablet which could over take the ipad as the kind of tablets (at least in the US) is Amazon.

What makes the ipad great and better than any other android tablet out there is not just the hardware, its the ecosystem, the tight integration with apple contents like music, videos, apps etc. Google although there are trying hard to build similar ecosystem with their google music, and google books still have a long way to go and have only succeeded in one are which is apps (even though the number of tablet focussed android apps is nothing compared to what is available on the ipad.

This is where amazon comes in. The took a base on android (possibly gingerbread) and built their own custom UI and integrated it with their own services.  And guess what Amazon is one company which rivals if not surpasses apple when it comes to a content ecosystem. The Kindle store for ebooks is the gold standard for buying ebooks I apple has nothing that is even close to that and if the success of the kindle and nook is anything to go by the ebook market is quite huge!, Amazon also has a big music store. Amazon music comes toe to toe with itunes (even though the latter has the brand recognition) Then there is the amazon video streaming service, the amazon app store (which is unique because it adopts the closed nature of itunes and apps would have to be approved before they are allowed into the store, this creates the placebo effect in people's mind that whatever app is used has passed through security checks. Also I see most apps might be required to be compatible with the kindle fire before allowed into the store in other to reduce the general fragmentation which affects android)

What amazon as done is take andriod and the open OS and put it behind their own walled garden. They also created a created a custom unique software which simplifies android for the average users and then a hardware which their software hooks into seamlessly. And talk about seamless, Amazon is huge in the US, its the number one online retailer when it comes to books (electronic and paper) consumer electronic, music, name it. They already have the brand recognition, the customer base, and the Kindle fire harnesses all of this by providing an easy seamless way to access all this services and more

already amazon has struck deals with major magazines   Bon Appetit, Elle,  Oprah.Vanity Fair, Wired, and GQ in the US all of which are on board, and users also have access to over 100,000 Movies and TV add that to millions of ebooks. then add the fact that this device would be selling for $199 about 30,000 naira.  dude this thing would be flying out of shelves

Then not to mention the free cloud storage service which allows you store your files in the cloud.

It doesn't come with a mic = big deal
nor a camera = seriously anyone going over this already has a phone with at least 5mp camera.
it doesn't come with bluetooth = who cares not a deal breaker

what you get is a very fast consumption device, a fast browser, a gateway to millions of books and other content devices,

the application space is a bit tricky, but most normal users really don't use all that app. most pretty much are happy with what come with their device and if that is not enough there have access to 10,000 apps (which would grow drastically once this device becomes king of the hill which it will)

for the 3% power users like me out there, the device would always be rooted and it would be possible to install just about any software or any mod of android on it. It would even be possible to install the missing google services. The average users won't care though.

I think Amazon has a winner here. And frankly I am considering getting one

if amazon successfully convince customers that they don't need to carry an expensive TV screen all around town to do basic  stuff,they will surely do well at that price 

It's ok for what it is. and the price point. The 7" fire was not meant to be an ipad competitor. It is simply a device to access Amazon's media services. I think the size is perfect though. I am one of the few that thinks the iPad is to big for continuous use, so I might get one of these. I'm pretty sure it will be hacked to access the Android marketplace soon after arrival, but my main gripe is the lack of a camera (that alone kills a lot of possible apps). I suspect the 10" kindle fire (2012 release?) will be an actual competitor of the Ipad, but not this one. But since it doesn't have 3g, it's pretty much useless in Naija.

4llerbuntu:

its WIFI only, just like the nook color.

whilst its not a total deal breaker for me, (i can mifi with my fone), it is for the absolute majority of pple in nigeria.

plus just 8gb? with no expandable storage. and it wont be developer friendly too coso of the absence of SD card. one would need a pc everytime to do anything and recovery will be difficult in the event of mishaps.

so its a niche device, its primarily a reader with fancy bells and whistles and some color.

Its not like the nook colour cos the nook was initially shipped without an app store and was really designed to be an e-reader first. It was only rooted to serve as a tablet, but the fire has  Amazon's Appstore for Android built-in from the get-go and is truly a multi-use tablet with integrated video and music apps along with gaming capabilities. Again you dont need a pc everytime, you can easily sync with the cloud or a wireless storage.

nateevs:

Absolute crap. What's the point of it? Save for the tight integration with Amazon services it's DOA.
Why buy a device you cannot access Android market with when you can find one with access the the market and then download a Kindle app.

Dont be clueless, you can access the android market but not the Google Android Market, you can be rest assured that some top apps will be replicated on the Amazon App Store soon, and the device can be rooted to have access to the full android store.

dtw_sola:

It's ok for what it is. and the price point. The 7" fire was not meant to be an ipad competitor. It is simply a device to access Amazon's media services. I think the size is perfect though. I am one of the few that thinks the iPad is to big for continuous use, so I might get one of these. I'm pretty sure it will be hacked to access the Android marketplace soon after arrival, but my main gripe is the lack of a camera (that alone kills a lot of possible apps). I suspect the 10" kindle fire (2012 release?) will be an actual competitor of the Ipad, but not this one. But since it doesn't have 3g, it's pretty much useless in Naija.

Sure, rooting has been confirmed. An android is an android. With close to a 100,000 pre-orders from America ONLY on the first day of release it will be a tablet to beat. The greatest draw-back is the 3g version but i see one coming up next year along with the 10'' kindle.

While this is not an iPad killer, it is more than enough to give Apple high blood pressure. As was pointed out, this lacks some features present in the iPad but how many of those features really count? Most people get an iPad not as a laptop replacement but as something to compliment a laptop.

iPad is primarily used to surf the web, watch movies, play games, listen to music, and do minor productivity work. Amazon’s Kindle fire covers all same primary functions and more importantly, at a very low price point. Don’t also forget that just like Apple, Amazon has an ecosystem to support the Kindle fire.

I will be buying at least two as a gift just because the price is low enough.