Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2: Review & Comparison

By: on 9.30.11

Amazon announced four new Kindles: three e-ink models and one extraordinary 7” color tablet-style device called the Kindle Fire.  The e-ink models are noteworthy because of their low price points.  Amazon now owns the low-end of the market.  The Kindle Fire is noteworthy because it is not a piece of hardware, it is a portable user interface to over 18 million books, songs and movies on Amazon.

amazon-kindle-fire

Kindle Fire

Is the Kindle Fire an iPad killer?  No.  It’s not really a tablet-computer.  It lacks cameras, access to a wireless 3G network, screen size and a wealth of other stuff that make the iPad 2 stand alone.  However, the Kindle Fire/Amazon ecosystem is the first viable competitor to the iDevices/Apple ecosystem, and I think Jeff Bezos and company is going to give the House that Steve Jobs built a run for their money.

I don’t think it’s fair to compare the Kindle Fire to an iPad 2.  It should probably be compared to the first iPod that had access to the iTunes Music Store.  The hardware was over-pretty, over-priced and under-featured.  But … and it was a big but … the iPod was simply a portable user interface to the iTunes Store.  Steve Jobs took your hard-earned money and, in exchange, he put you in Apple prison.  Granted, it was a gorgeous prison with lots of music and bells and whistles, but it was still a prison.

The Kindle Fire is $199.  For $79 more, you get Amazon Prime which gives you free shipping and access to the Amazon streaming library. I’m sure if you calculate the revenue per unit, Amazon could afford to give it away for free – just like they give away cell phones.  Why?  Because after you buy it, you are going to be in Amazon prison.  This is not a bad thing; it’s just what it is.

Which begs for the question: “Is Amazon prison going to be greater than, less than or equal to Apple prison?”iPad 2

Before you sentence yourself, you should know that the jury is still out.  Amazon’s technological approach to the Kindle Fire is non-trivially different from other tablet-style devices.

First, even though the Kindle Fire runs Android, you will not know it.  Amazon has completely taken over the user experience.  So much so, that even the web browser is conceptually new.  Amazon calls it the “Silk” browser and it takes advantage of Amazon’s vast storage and computing clouds to deliver content in a technically different way than other browsers do.  I won’t bore you with the geek-speak, but Amazon has control of the content you browse in ways that are, well … non-trivial.  Do you care?  No.  Remember, you’re in Amazon prison.

The Kindle Fire only has 8GB of internal storage.  According to Amazon, that’s enough for 80 apps, plus either 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books.  I know that sounds like a lot.  It is.  But, what do you do with the 10 movies once you’ve watched them?  The answer is Amazon’s “free” Cloud Drive.  Amazon says that you will be able to store everything you purchase from them in the Amazon cloud for free.  That’s your virtual footlocker while you are in Amazon prison.  What do you do with the content you want to store that you didn’t buy from Amazon?  Ahh … glad you asked.  You purchase storage space from Amazon Cloud Drive.  How much is it?  How long will the prices stay this low?  Good questions.  We’ll know soon enough.

Speaking of Apps, the Kindle Fire only allows you to purchase Apps from the Amazon marketplace and, as with all magnificently designed correctional facilities, Amazon will curate your selection.  This is actually a very good thing because quality control is an oxymoron in Google’s Android Marketplace.  I believe that you will be better off having Amazon mind the store for you.  But, gorgeous as it is, it’s still a prison.

Unlike the iPad, the Kindle Fire is supposed to play Adobe Flash files.  How well?  You will have to judge for yourself.

From my perspective, none of the hardware issues, nor he price, matter with the Kindle Fire.  The device is awesome.  It will improve over time and Amazon is sure to keep working hard to lower the prices and give more value to its customers.

This is a curated content play and it is a brilliant move on Amazon’s part.  Like many of you, I am already in Amazon prison with my Kindle.  And, I am none the worse for wear.  I love my Kindle and the Kindle Apps on my MacBook Air, iPhone, Droid Bionic, iPad 2 and even on my Motorola Xoom.  Amazon consistently gives me great service, great products and great consumer experiences all at competitive prices.   If you’re looking for a 7” (1024×600)-sized color e-reader with web browsing and 18 million files to choose from – the Kindle Fire is your new portable interface.  If you’re a loyal Amazon customer, Jeff Bezos made this just for you!

Author:

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Shelly Palmer

Shelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York's On-air Tech Expert (WNYW-TV) and the host of Fox Television's monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living. He also hosts United Stations Radio Network's, Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily, a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology, media, and entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC an industry-leading advisory and business development firm and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards).

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y4AJEC7WSC22KKCYIH6ANZ43CM Mile L.

    Excellent article Shelly, one of the best I’ve read… The only thing
    missing is this is a “advertising subsidized device”, so it’s sold at a
    loss… so expect to dig through spam every time you use it… plus the
    inclusion of Flash is an oversight since it will kill the battery and
    cause endless user frustration.

    It will likely sell well against the Nook, but it’s not even close to
    the same class as an iPad… 7 vs 10 inch, for only a few dollars more?
    Plus the iPad runs all the same Kindle books… so Apple isn’t a good
    comparison, the title should be: Kindle Fire vs. Nook Color

    • Shelly

      Mike – It is absolutely more Nook-like than iPad-like.  But the Kindle Fire is superior to the Nook Color in almost every way.  We’ll all have to wait and see how many ads and offers are interlaced with the content.  My guess is that it will be a very controlled (and excellent) user experience.  Amazon is aggressive, but usually it is non-anxiety-provoking.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Thi-Halpern/100000387237355 Thi Halpern

    I think you really over-stretch it when you say the first iPod was just a user interface to the iTunes music store and that it was a “prison”. I owned the first iPod when it came out and it wasn’t until about 5 or so years later did I buy a piece of music from iTunes music store. From day one, I burned/ripped CDs to put on my iPod. It was in no way necessarily tethered to the iTunes music store and still isn’t.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y4AJEC7WSC22KKCYIH6ANZ43CM Mile L.

      Yes, it remains baffling why people, much less authors STILL get confused that iTunes will accept and play ANY common media format for FREE! So any music, audiobooks, books, pdfs, video, movies, etc are WHOLLY independent… iTunes plays them, syncs them just fine to any device.

      the iTunes “STORE” is a separate entity… and even that no longer has DRM, so this author is uniformed by calling it a “prison”, when it’s more of a “playground” to do whatever you want… with files you get from wherever…

      • Shelly

        Thi & Mike – I’m not the least confused about the iDevices ability to access my personal, non-Apple-purchased content.  That is not the point.  The Apple ecosystem is set-up to be accretive to Apple, not the other way around.  The thesis of my article is that Amazon is doing all it can to copy the model.  People who have some technical skills can avoid “prison,” most (even those who can) don’t make the effort and give in to purchasing apps at the app store (rather than jailbreaking their iDevices), 15 Billion+ app downloads sort of speaks for itself.  As for music, movies, books and .pdf’s.  Those with more time than money, steal — those with more money than time, buy … and usually from inside the ecosystem.

  • http://profiles.google.com/ebernet Eytan Bernet

    I am curious what the “playing Flash” means that the Fire does. My guess is that Silk plays Flash by performing the heavy lifting remotely and then sending it as a data stream. Will have to see when reviewers actually get it in their hands, but my guess is it works like the many “Flash” browsers for the iOS ecosystem.

    • Shelly

      Eytan – it does do a serious amount of processing in the cloud.  What I’ve seen is acceptable, but I did not have enough time with the product to evaluate its ability to play Flash files with any degree of objectivity.

  • Mediamentions

    I
    don’t know about you, but I find the speed at which technology is
    currently advancing absolutely fascinating. That being said, the speed
    of development is bound to incur some serious competition, and your post
    reminded me of a pretty cool article I read just earlier today. In any
    case, I hope you also find it as interesting as I did (here’s a link, if
    you’d like to take a look: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/showlink.aspx?bookmarkid=1Q5PZK4SHLH2&preview=article&linkid=32360f09-845f-4660-aa65-f182605aa006&pdaffid=ZVFwBG5jk4Kvl9OaBJc5%2bg%3d%3d) Either way, thank you for your post. A perfect Friday morning coffee read :)

    Cheers!

  • Diane K

    One issue no one seems to have addressed yet in comparing the two is that Amazon has no brick and mortar store to which you can go to talk to someone when your device isn’t working. There is something to be said for that.

  • Paul

    Good overview. Hope you get out of prison soon! :-)

    Typo. Should be Jobs, no apostrophe!

    “However, the Kindle Fire/Amazon ecosystem is the first viable competitor to the iDevices/Apple ecosystem, and I think Jeff Bezos and company is going to give the House that Steve Job’s built a run for their money.”

    • nitpicker

      incorrect, the apostrophe is supposed to be there, it’s a contraction for “Steve Job has built” ;-)

      • nitpicker

        well maybe not! :-)

  • http://www.igcent.com/ Trip

    The iPad 2 wins this.