Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The Fire is not sold as a "generic" Android tablet, but as a device for the consumption of Amazon content. Why do you believe that the fact that it has a forked o/s means that it will not be fully functional for the purpose for which it's designed? I mean, do you care (or even know) what version of Linux your Kindle Keyboard is running?
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It doesn't matter how Amazon wants us to see its market placement of the KF. What matters is how the public chooses to use it. If you're spending over two hundred dollars for a tablet, I'd say your uses for it should be as unconfined as possible.
An e-reader running a modified flavor of Linux is a very different thing from a standard multi-purpose Android tablet which deviates from a specific and perpetually developed OS with which many other apps -- and their updates -- must be compatible.
The simplicity of text-based e-books require far less standardization at the software/hardware integration level, and the deliberately limited functionality of e-text-specific hardware/software is a completely different case from that of the tablet. The reason Amazon alone can make the KK relevant is because their variations on a standard are consistently useful. Not so their deviations from Android.
As a tablet user, I want as much functionality as possible. I'm not interested in an attractive content player. Amazon is changing that model as well: They've made OfficeSuite a permanent part of their software and, according to the WSJ, are courting the business market. Business markets value compatibility.
Most people I know who own the original KF either rooted it immediately or bemoaned its limitations. Limiting the OS to an Amazon-specific version of Jellybean which deviates from the original so much that it has its own name will probably limit the KF user's options even more.