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Apple

Kindle Fire Will Be Hotter Than iPad This Holiday 258

zacharye writes "Amazon's upcoming Kindle Fire could be the hottest tablet on the market this holiday season, with demand that may even surpass Apple's blockbuster slate, the iPad 2. Results from a recent survey published by electronics shopping guide Retrevo.com suggest that more consumers are interested in purchasing Amazon's upcoming tablet than Apple's tried and true iPad. As a result, the site speculates that the Kindle Fire represents Apple's first real competition in the tablet space."
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Kindle Fire Will Be Hotter Than iPad This Holiday

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:31PM (#38019428)
    • by bonch ( 38532 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @02:10AM (#38020234)

      So the summary says it could be hotter than the iPad. Then you see that the source is just some survey from an electronics shopping guide nobody's heard of. And somehow, the headline definitively becomes "Kindle Fire Will Be Hotter Than iPad This Holiday." Another stellar prediction from the site that brought you predictions of the failures of both the iPod and iPod mini.

    • by bennomatic ( 691188 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @02:21AM (#38020294) Homepage
      You know what else will outsell the iPad? MacDonalds cheeseburgers! You may think that's a silly comparison, but I think the iPad has a lot to learn from MacD's.

      The cheeseburger is tasty and delicious. The iPad is decidedly not.

      If I drop a cheeseburger and it breaks, it only costs me $1.69 to replace it. The iPad? $500 and up!

      I can put *any condiments I want* on my cheeseburger. The only apps I'm officially allowed to put on an iPad are dictated by the Apple store.

      I can literally tear my cheeseburger in two and share it with a friend. The iPad is a one-user device.

      The best thing about an iPad? I can stack well over a dozen cheeseburgers on it.
      • by GNious ( 953874 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @04:24AM (#38020852)

        You know what else will outsell the iPad? MacDonalds cheeseburgers!
        [...]
        The cheeseburger is tasty and delicious.

        You must shop at a different MacDonalds than any I've tried :)

      • by tadas ( 34825 )

        If I drop a cheeseburger and it breaks, it only costs me $1.69 to replace it. The iPad? $500 and up!

        Rip-off artist! A cheeseburger at McDonald's is only $0.89. Even a double cheeseburger is only $1.19.

    • by Kenshin ( 43036 )

      I wonder what Stefan would say...

      "This Christmas' hottest tablet is going to be the Kindle Fire. It comes personally signed by the Amazon employee who shipped it, contains the entire collection of The Babysitters Club, and has something called the Human Library. That's where they have a midget, and attach hundreds of books to him with velcro."

  • by XxtraLarGe ( 551297 ) on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:35PM (#38019444) Journal
    If they can't fill the order before Christmas, I'll cancel & order an iPad 2 for my wife. Apple has very quick turn-around.I got an engraved iPod Touch for her last year with free 2-day shipping.
    • I want something that can be like a Roku or Apple TV. I want Video out for my TV. I want it to cost about $200. I want it to play Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video. If it play apple itunes video all the better. And I want it to have decent but not excellent pad function so I can take it ont car trips instead of my laptop. Finally, I want an OS that will be updated (e.g. ice cream sandwhich or later). Anyone have one?

      • Re:What I want (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Dahamma ( 304068 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @12:12AM (#38019664)

        The reason Roku & AppleTV are so cheap is that they don't have a display, lithium battery, or enough flash to store content. You want high res display, capacitive touch screen, storage, and portability, you are not going to pay $200 any time soon.

        Even the Kindle Fire is a loss leader. It will never be as flexible as an iPad because that way Amazon would never make their money back.

        • To an extent I disagree, the iPad isn't going to be as flexible as it could be as long as Apple continues Steve's obsession with controlling how the end user uses the product. Hopefully with Steve gone they can remember who the customers are. Consequently, I'm not so sure that the Fire is going to be that much less flexible than the iPad.

          • Re:What I want (Score:5, Insightful)

            by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @01:34AM (#38020082) Homepage

            The rest of the Apple marketing team continues to roll on the floor with laughter ever time they hear this. When will it become clear that the mindset you espouse is but a rounding error on some spreadsheet?

          • I think Apple got to where they ARE by knowing who their customers are.

      • Apple's iOS has had two or three major upgrades since the release of the original iPad.
      • by artor3 ( 1344997 )

        Well, you can actually do most of that with Motorola's Droid X2 (and probably other Android phones). I've got a decently long HDMI cable laid out in my living room. One end in the TV, the other ending up near the couch. Plug it into the phone, enabling "mirror mode" -- everything on the phone's screen shows up on the TV in 720p -- and use the phone as a sort of remote. I also use a mini-speaker to get better sound quality than the built in speakers are capable of.

        For Netflix, baseball, and football, I u

      • I want something that can be like a Roku or Apple TV. I want Video out for my TV. I want it to cost about $200. I want it to play Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video

        And I want Olivia Hunt to give me a nice hummer.

    • Out of curiousity, I just placed another order, and the delivery estimate was Nov 17-22. The one I pre-ordered on day one says Nov 16.

  • could = will? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mkraft ( 200694 ) on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:35PM (#38019446)

    Since when are "could" and "will" synonymous?

    • Re:could = will? (Score:5, Informative)

      by RazorSharp ( 1418697 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @12:17AM (#38019688)

      The sad thing is that when there's dupes - one with a sensational (and inaccurate) headline and the other with an unsensational (and accurate) headline - the sensational headline makes it to the front page whereas the other gets buried as a dupe. It's not that the community actively works to create inaccuracies and sensationalism, it's just that those are better at catching people's attention.

      'Could' transformed to 'will' is probably the most common headline error on /. 'Could' stories aren't interesting - that word usually indicates an opinion piece (usually in the form of a blog) or some shoddy survey (such as this article). People tend to glance over them. 'Will' stories tend to be either a conclusion with legitimate research to back it up or a bait and switch of 'could.' So we look for 'will' and overlook 'could.'

      I only post this nuanced examination into the phenomenon in hopes that it inspires others to bury these could = will stories before they can escape the firehose.

      • I only post this nuanced examination into the phenomenon in hopes that it inspires others to bury these could = will stories before they can escape the firehose.

        You forget they know that Slashdot's main audience is a bunch of FOSS nazi's that live for the eventual hope that Apple will either die or be forced to convert iOS to a command line interface.

  • by mosb1000 ( 710161 ) <mosb1000@mac.com> on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:39PM (#38019468)

    I'd suggest that apple should make a 7" tablet so they can compete at the same price point. But maybe it would be better to wait and see what the user experience is like on these. It seems like it would be too small.

    • by hardtofindanick ( 1105361 ) on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:49PM (#38019532)
      Impossible, we all know by now that apple only innovates and never imitates. I think apple will go for 6.9" or 7.1".
    • by jbolden ( 176878 ) on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:54PM (#38019574) Homepage

      Apple doesn't get into prince wars. They give away market share against competitors that are willing to lose money and focus on profitable segments of the market.

      • by Dahamma ( 304068 )

        Exactly! Why would one of the most profitable companies in the world want to change their insanely successful strategy and go low end to compete with a loss leader?

        • In military terms few things are less successful than an old successful strategy. You have to have change-ups to win in the long term because otherwise the other guy knows what you're going to do.
          • by 0123456 ( 636235 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @01:20AM (#38020032)

            Plus Steve Jobs is pining for the fjords.

          • by dgood ( 139443 )

            Yeah, so the military should stop using weapons because that's what the other guy knows they're going to do?

            There will always be a market for a company that caters to the high end of the market as long as they have appropriate products for that market segment. Sometimes even when that market is very, very small (i.e. Rolex, Ferrari) but you can still be very profitable.

          • by Dahamma ( 304068 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @01:41AM (#38020114)

            Since the only thing Apple has done that has been successfully predicted over the last decade is make money hand over fist, I I think they are doing just fine. Much better than most militaries these days.

          • by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Friday November 11, 2011 @02:03AM (#38020208)

            In military terms few things are less successful than an old successful strategy. You have to have change-ups to win in the long term because otherwise the other guy knows what you're going to do.

            Except Apple does change things up. They've sacrificed product lines with the introduction of new products.

            The iPod is nearly dead, despite just half a decade ago, being one of the most popular devices on the planet. Killed basically by smartphones, and the iPhone. Apple's low-end computers are taking a beating because people realize they just needed an iPad over the "complexities" of a computer.

            Hell, even within a product line - the iPod mini (remember that?) was one of the most popular iPods in the lineup, killed by the Nano. The iPod Shuffle's currently dying, since the current Nano is basically better in every way. It and the Classic are only surviving because they're fulfilling niches (Shuffle - cheap ($50). Classic - carrying your entire library with you).

            Hell, the only strategy they haven't changed was "make it feel premium and charge healthy margins" rather than race to the bottom. Mostly because they know their competitors are doing the race to the bottom thing. When the iPad came out, everyone was thinking it was a $1000 failure and got their $700 competitors just about to hit the market. When it came out at $500, it basically took a year for them to come out with a viable competitor.

            Now, the biggest problem with the Kindle Fire is it's US only. Outside the US it's relatively useless - you can't access the Amazon App Store (unless you have a US billing address).

            And yes, the iPad and Kindle Fire will be competitors (more than "iPad and everyone else"). But Android tablets need to take note - because the Kindle Fire is basically pushing them to the wayside. And the biggest thing is - the Amazon Android ecosystem isn't exactly sitting easy with a lot of Android developers. But if the Kindle sells well enough, it makes the Amazon App Store a tempting place to sell. Walled garden and app approvals a la the Apple App Store model.

    • by guidryp ( 702488 ) on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:55PM (#38019578)

      A 7" iPad would cost about $400.

      The Fire is cheap because it is essentially a subsidized POS terminal for Amazon store.

      Apple is not going to follow that model.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Kenja ( 541830 )
        Yes, Apple runs the iTunes store a non-profit charity.
        • by iluvcapra ( 782887 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @12:13AM (#38019666)

          They run it as an at-cost loss leader. Amazon has great streaming selection but a crappy tablet, so they subsidize the tablet. Apple has a great tablet but doesn't offer streaming as a complementing option, so the subsidize the things they do offer.

        • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

          by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @03:08AM (#38020504)
          Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • But that's still a good thing. Many people I know say that you might as well buy a Chinese knockoff tablet instead of the Fire, because it's much cheaper. My argument is that the Chinese retailers don't care if your products works a month after you get it, and you're on your own for software upgrades. Amazon on the other hand has a vested interest in ensuring that you continue to use the Fire for a long time. Because if you stop using the tablet, then you stop buying content from them. So Amazon is ver
    • Not gonna happen. Apple only makes premium products at high margin. Amazon is selling this at or below cost, and making money selling the content.

    • by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @02:27AM (#38020328)

      Apple made a 7" tablet. You know what happened to it? They killed it when they decided that the experience of using it was inferior to using a 10". Steve Jobs even mentioned that they intentionally chose 10" over 7" because the user experience was far inferior on the 7" screen.

      Rumors indicate that Apple does batteries of internal product testing with a variety of fully-completed prototypes. Rather than putting them all out on the market and seeing which ones sink or float, which is what a lot of companies do, Apple pits them against each other to see which one they think is best, and then they bring that one to market. The benefit is that they can focus on one thing and do it well, and they have less costs associated with maintaining a variety of devices and their supply chains, allowing them to simplify.

      Part of the reason you see so many 7" tablets from competitors is also because Apple has locked up a large chunk of the 10" supply from manufacturers, leaving their competitors to grab as many of the 7" screens as they can, then try to market it as an advantage over the iPad. There definitely are some advantages to 7", to be sure, but between the supply lock Apple has and the difficulty the competitors are having in matching prices, many of them had their hand forced on the 7" vs. 10" choice.

      • Apple gives manufacturers billions of dollars up front to build new facilities to manufacture their products. They take all the output, but that's understandable because they paid the up-front cost. Other companies could do the same, if they felt they could afford to bet the farm on a new product the way Apple often does.

  • by shmlco ( 594907 ) on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:52PM (#38019548) Homepage

    From TFA: Retrevo’s Andrew Eisner wrote on a company blog. “As popular as the Kindle Fire appears in this study, whether it lives up to expectations on things like battery life, performance, image quality, etc, the picture could get brighter or less bright for the Kindle Fire.”

    The picture could get brighter OR less bright for the Kindle Fire. Yep. That's a clear viewpoint.

    "...27% said they would upgrade to a Kindle Fire..."

    I don't know if you can "upgrade" to a Fire, unless they're counting current Kindle e-ink owners in the mix. I own an iPad AND I'm buying a Fire to dink around with. $199 is cheap enough that surely I can find some use for it, if only to keep in the bathroom... (grin)

  • 2 vs 5 (Score:5, Informative)

    by jbolden ( 176878 ) on Thursday November 10, 2011 @11:52PM (#38019550) Homepage

    The Kindle Fire is $200 the iPad starts at $500 and goes up to $830. They are competing at different levels of the market. And Apple's hardware margin is about 50% while Amazon's is around 10%. Which means people are getting a better hardware value.

    Why would it be a shock if given those sorts of numbers the iPad was outsold?

    • The Kindle Fire is $200 the iPad starts at $500 and goes up to $830. They are competing at different levels of the market. And Apple's hardware margin is about 50% while Amazon's is around 10%. Which means people are getting a better hardware value.

      If this was a desktop computer, I would agree with you, but completely integrated (mobile) products are more than just the sum of their components. Most consumers don't care about "hardware value" then as such, although the lower price might be attractive. I ne

  • by frinkster ( 149158 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @12:28AM (#38019742)

    Amazon produces a Kindle app for almost every platform, which ensures that the Kindle eBook marketplace is dominant. But buying an actual Kindle device limits you to the Kindle eBook marketplace.

    The Kindle App is the single app I use most on my iPad (but far from the most used app as I am not the only user), but it is far easier to get an epub or PDF onto an iPad (and into the Apple iBooks) than it is to do the same on a Kindle device. I can get on to Safari Books Online (O'Reilly's eBook website) through my employer's proxy server. My iPad is an amazing programming partner - the best reference source I have ever had. It is worth the extra money to have all of those extra book sources. (I think Android tables can do this as well, I'm arguing against the Kindle and not specifically FOR the iPad)

    Just pay the extra money. It is worth it.

    • by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      Amazon produces a Kindle app for almost every platform, which ensures that the Kindle eBook marketplace is dominant. But buying an actual Kindle device limits you to the Kindle eBook marketplace.

      That's news to me. About half the books on my Kindle came from Smashwords, Gutenburg and archive.org; I always buy ebooks from Smashwords where possible, because they're guaranteed DRM-free.

    • by artor3 ( 1344997 )

      Have you ever actually tried to put a 3rd party book into a Kindle? You just plug it into your computer with the provided USB cable, drag the file over, and you're done.

      Regardless, you are right that if you want a device to read reference books on, the Kindle (like all e-ink solutions) is a poor choice. Even with all the advancements they've made to speed page turns, it's still too slow to be a good reference book.

    • by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @12:51AM (#38019890)

      The Kindle App is the single app I use most on my iPad (but far from the most used app as I am not the only user), but it is far easier to get an epub or PDF onto an iPad (and into the Apple iBooks) than it is to do the same on a Kindle device.

      With Calibre it's every bit as easy with a Kindle as with an iPad. You tell it where your books are, you tell it what device you have, and it figures out the best format to use, then converts on the fly.

      Aside from that, the iPad is a better device for technical documentation, if you're going to be flipping around a lot and looking at diagrams. The Kindle is a better device if you are going to read something straight through.

    • I don't get this at all, especially with programs like Calibre, Amazon makes it as easy as possible to get documents into your Kindle using the Personal Documents feature it is a piece of cake! I have never met a document format I could not easily get onto my Kindle device. True, if you want things that are DRM'ed you have to jump through some hoops but that would be no different on any device.
    • [...] but it is far easier to get an epub or PDF onto an iPad (and into the Apple iBooks) than it is to do the same on a Kindle device.

      Isn't it handy when you control the device that you get to do things that third-parties aren't allowed to do?

  • I never though the web would take off, either. The jury is still out on Web 2.0 though...

  • by aristotle-dude ( 626586 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @01:18AM (#38020022)

    The Kindle fire is largely a non-starter outside of the US because the ecosystem outside of books is largely US centric whereas the iPad offers music, games, movies and TV for iTunes users in many countries around the world.

  • In other news..... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Karlt1 ( 231423 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @01:25AM (#38020054)

    "ABI Research Survey: 58% of iPod Owners Planning Another MP3 Player Purchase Will Consider Microsoft's Zune"

    http://www.zunegy.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=ABISURV110106&Store_Code=Z [zunegy.com]

    How did that turn out?

    • by deniable ( 76198 )
      iPod owners who are going to buy something else and won't automatically exclude the Zune. 58% sounds low.
  • by Assmasher ( 456699 ) on Friday November 11, 2011 @02:13AM (#38020256) Journal

    I was really excited about this thing until I read that you could only use the Amazon App Store.

    That's not terribly surprising, this is Amazon after all, but it is still very very disappointing.

    Amazon App Store is terrible, both for consumers (try using apps offline), and developers (too much to even start mentioning.)

    This is the same reason I didn't get a NotionInk tablet when they came out either.

    Yes, I can root the thing (and will likely be able to root the Amazon device) but I shouldn't have to and I try to avoid supporting companies who force me to hack their devices to use them the way I want.

    The reason I don't have a personal iPad/iPad2 is because I detest the Apple walled garden, and Amazon is planning on doing exactly the same thing here. Don't be surprised if there is dedicated "trusted computing" hardware in the thing ;)...

    • by glop ( 181086 )

      If you plan to root, I recommend the Nook Color or Tablet.
      There is a micro SD slot in there that is bootable. A real joy: just copy Cyanogenmod on the micro SD(an Android distribution with good Nook support), put the micro SD in the slot, turn device off, turn on and boot into an Android environment where you are in full control and enjoy Google Market access (the hack for that is easy actually on Cyanogemod).

      I'd pay the extra money (50$, so 250$ total) for the Tablet as it is much faster than my Nook Color

    • Of course - this thing is cheap as a loss leader for Amazon's media sales. Amazon wants you to buy more stuff from them so the tablet's cheap. Apple wants you to buy an iPad (and the iPad margins are decent enough to do this) so they see iTunes music/books/apps whatever as a value add.

  • The Kindle Fire isn't the first serious competitor to the iPad. That's why Apple are going arse over tit after Samsung all over the damn planet.

    • I think they mean sales wise, not functionality wise.
      • Which is why the first thing Apple did was try and get every country Samsung and Apple were both selling in to stop sales of the Samsung devices until the cases were finished.

        Cost Samsung a bomb in seized stock and lost revenue.

        Cost Apple a hell of a lot less.

  • by horli ( 1082207 )
    yeah Kindle is really hot as it burns your books at the desire of amazon.

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