Oct 1, 2011
Amazon has finally announced its long-awaited competitor for the iPad, dubbed the Kindle Fire. This new device has a 7-inch color touch screen, a dual-core processor, can run applications from the Amazon Appstore, has free cloud storage for all content purchased from Amazon and boasts a battery life of up to 8 hours (7.5 hours for video playback).
The home screen of the Kindle Fire looks more than a bit familiar.
The Kindle Fire costs just $199, and given that it has many of the iPad’s capabilities, some bloggers such as Robert X. Cringely have suggested that it could become the iPad’s first legitimate rival. It’s even less expensive than the $229 iPod Touch. Cringely notes that he will be buying three for his children this Christmas rather than Apple devices.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Kindle Fire is a technology called Amazon Silk. To reduce page loading times when browsing the Web, the Kindle Fire will have the ability to pre-render a whole page in the cloud before sending it to the Kindle Fire as a single download. Although this should make browsing the Web on the Kindle Fire lightning fast, the TCP/Web Acceleration technology that enables Amazon Silk has caused problems when used on other platforms such as satellite broadband connections.
Competition is always a good thing, and the tablet market was one that Apple couldn’t have expected to have outright ownership of forever. If the Kindle Fire cuts into the iPad’s sales at all, Apple may consider a price drop on the iPad. On the other hand, the iPad almost certainly includes more powerful components than will be in the Kindle Fire, and the selection of apps available for the iPad is a selling point that Amazon may find it difficult to beat.