Amazon Kindle Fire

With the Kindle Fire, Amazon is making its first foray into tablet computers, a market where Apple dominates with its iPad and nothing else has even made a dent. The Android-based Kindle Fire is an impressive media tablet, and Jeff Bezos understands that the device itself is only part of the equation. It is merely the front-end of a set of end-to-end services which will deliver digital media from Amazon’s servers to people’s hands.

But the Kindle Fire is no iPad, and Bezos knows that too. So he is using something else to differentiate the Fire from the iPad: price. The $199 price of the fire surprised almost everyone. It is $300 lower than the cheapest iPad 2. So even if it is not as fully featured, doesn’t work as smoothly and will launch with a laughably small number of apps (less than 1 about 15 percent of the number of apps available on the iPad, which is currently over 100,000), all of that may not matter. Because if it is good enough, millions of people will decide to buy it for $199 instead of spending $499 for an iPad.

One of Amazon’s advantages as a retailer with scale has always been price. And it is using it effectively with the Kindle Fire, which is already the second-best selling Kindle on Amazon (the first is the new $79 Kindle). Correction: the Fire is actually the top selling electronics item right now on Amazon. There is a reason the Kindle Fire is not launching with 3G service, and only WiFi. Amazon had to do everything to get it down to that $199 price point.

Bezos knows he can’t take on Apple head on. Instead, he is doing everything he can to carve out a new space in the tablet market for Amazon, and price is a big part of it. In a letter to customers that is currently on the homepage of Amazon, he “punches Apple hard,” in the words of investor John Borthwick. The letter starts:

There are two types of companies: those that work hard to charge customers more, and those that work hard to charge customers less. Both approaches can work. We are firmly in the second camp.

Bezos made the same point during the launch announcement of the new Kindle line last week. “We are building premium products at non-premium prices,” he said. Apple, of course, builds premium products at premium prices. Will it have to respond by lowering the price of the iPad even lower, or can it stick to the high road?




Tech Specs:
Display 7" multi-touch display with IPS (in-plane switching) technology and anti-reflective treatment, 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors.
Size (in inches) 7.5" x 4.7" x 0.45" (190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm).
Weight 14.6 ounces (413 grams).
System Requirements None, because it's wireless and doesn't require a computer.
On-device Storage 8GB internal. That's enough for 80 apps, plus 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books.
Cloud Storage Free cloud storage for all Amazon content
Battery Life Up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as web browsing and downloading content.
Charge Time Fully charges in approximately 4 hours via included U.S. power adapter. Also supports charging from your computer via USB.
Wi-Fi Connectivity Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use the 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, or 802.1X standard with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks.
USB Port USB 2.0 (micro-B connector)
Audio 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers.
Content Formats Supported Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.
Documentation Quick Start Guide(included in box); Kindle User's Guide (pre-installed on device)
Warranty and Service 1-year limited warranty and service included. Optional 2-year Extended Warranty available for U.S. customers sold separately. Use of Kindle is subject to the terms found here.
Included in the Box Kindle Fire device, U.S. power adapter (supports 100-240V), and Quick Start Guide.