By Mark Herbert
Our prayers go out to the family of Steve Jobs who tragically passed away yesterday. The legacy he left was both huge and sterling. Apple computers lead the way in terms of new interface and new interaction with our technology. Among the greatest things that Jobs left to his company was the iPad. The smart little tablet absolutely created a new genre of hardware in the technology world. On the iPad you can stream, create, surf, or just play Angry Birds all at the touch of a screen.
Amazon, however, has decided that 399 dollars is much too high a price to pay for such a commodity and are now marketing what amounts to a stripped down version without a few features but with a 199 dollar pricetag that could prove very hard to overcome.
The Amazon Kindle Fire, a member of Amazon’s eReader family, offers a fast dual core processor but uses only the new Amazon browser, Silk. The Fire also may disappoint some users in that it is not offering the full Android market but an adulterated version that has been custom tailored to Amazon. Free storage on Amazon’s Cloud internet storage and a free access deal to their streaming online library for a temporary period, however may compensate.
The fact of the matter is that Amazon has not even called its new device a tablet. If you should turn to amazon.com and thumb through the profile page, you’ll find that the Fire’s creators refuse to use the word, as they do not want their device being compared to the iPad. Public opinion won’t spare them the comparison, though.
The Amazon Fire is an absolute contender as far as media go and could take the iPad on that front. The addition of Amazon’s streaming service as well as their HUGE online catalog of books catapult it as far as movies, music, and books go. The only crutch to its victory in this area is its pitiful 8GB memory, but without tons of content to download and hold offline it should not present much of a problem.
As far as apps, there is no comparison. Apple continues to have far and away the greatest and most Apps in the land and Amazon is being stingy, afraid to release the entire Android market because that would beg this same comparison that they don’t want made. As far as general connectivity, the Fire will not be viable for 3G coverage so it relies on Wi Fi only. Advantage: iPad.
Only time will tell if Steve Jobs’ legacy creation will be able to stand first among the new generations of technology borrowing its format. The Amazon Fire will certainly take a bite out of the iPad’s popularity, but we’ll all have to wait until November 15 to find out.
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