Amazon Takes on the iPad: Who Will Prevail?
SodaHead Tech
2011/09/26 18:00:00
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Amazon's Kindle was a major player in the battle of the e-book readers, managing to put Barnes & Noble's Nook and Sony's Reader to shame.
Well, now Amazon is going after the big boy: Apple's iPad.
Very little has been revealed about the product, except that it will be 7 inches (compared to the iPad's 10), should run you around $250* (a bargain compared to the $500 iPad 2), and that it will run Google's Android software.
Tech Crunch reports the product will be called the Kindle Fire. Whether that means it will be an integrated e-reader tablet or a separate device remains to be seen, but PC Mag suggests its small size could make it difficult to compete with the iPad.
An official announcement is planned for Wednesday.
Analysts are giving Apple some frightening predictions, calling an Amazon tablet a potential "game-changer" and warning about the company's "aggressive" pricing. James McQuivey, with Forrester Research, told Reuters, "It's a marketing tool to build a relationship with customers and sell them cloud (computing) services."
"Cloud services" are a ground-breaking development that offer users the ability to upload music and data to a remote storage location so that it can be accessed from any location.
So far Apple has pushed almost 30 million iPads out the door since last April (not counting blocks of wood) -- and that's at double the price Amazon is proposing.
Does Amazon stand a chance?
Well, now Amazon is going after the big boy: Apple's iPad.
Very little has been revealed about the product, except that it will be 7 inches (compared to the iPad's 10), should run you around $250* (a bargain compared to the $500 iPad 2), and that it will run Google's Android software.
Tech Crunch reports the product will be called the Kindle Fire. Whether that means it will be an integrated e-reader tablet or a separate device remains to be seen, but PC Mag suggests its small size could make it difficult to compete with the iPad.
An official announcement is planned for Wednesday.
Analysts are giving Apple some frightening predictions, calling an Amazon tablet a potential "game-changer" and warning about the company's "aggressive" pricing. James McQuivey, with Forrester Research, told Reuters, "It's a marketing tool to build a relationship with customers and sell them cloud (computing) services."
"Cloud services" are a ground-breaking development that offer users the ability to upload music and data to a remote storage location so that it can be accessed from any location.
So far Apple has pushed almost 30 million iPads out the door since last April (not counting blocks of wood) -- and that's at double the price Amazon is proposing.
Does Amazon stand a chance?
* Update: On Wednesday, Amazon revealed that the Kindle Fire will be released on November 15 and run for $199. It will also offer Amazon's cloud service for free, however the first version of the device will be WiFi only. No 3G (yet).
Top Opinion
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danielsard 2011/09/27 13:52:48Amazon's Kindle Fire
+8For me is all about a well made marketing strategy. You can sell the most useless piece of junk in this country if you market it well
XD
Apple, too, will come in 2nd place in some of its products.
I imagine there'll be an uneasy co-existance, as with the PC-Mac thing.
The people with more money to waste will take the iPad, and insist that it's worth the money.
They people with less money to waste, or better sense when it comes to what to spend it on may take the Kindle Fire.
Of Course, the latter will be at the disadvantage of later release (as with the PS3 and Xbox 360) and will suffer because of that.
Personally, i'm going to get a Amazon Kindle Fire when i can, but i've never seriously considered getting an iPad.
Also, Apple's iPad 2 is overpriced even for 16GB, they don't offer an 8GB, even if Apple did offer an 8GB iPad 2, I bet it'd be ridiculously overpriced just to purchase it.
There is a whole "i" population. Apple people are Apple people, then there are the rest of us. Hunting for bargains. I know a slew of Apple people. Everything they own is "i" ~ iPod, iPad, iPhone, etc.. The rest of us aren't locked into a "brand". We either buy what we can afford or look at what best suits our needs. So, in my opinion, they will be equally successful.