Amazon Announces 4 New Kindle devices... - Page 24

frahse · 09-29-2011, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Then why have they already admitted that they're not interested in actively preventing users from rooting the device?

Hey man, they can't really stop the hackers/rooters and so why not just ignore them which will save money and actually probably attract some more buyers.

On the other hand, if someone messes their device up, well then Amazon doesn't have to fix it under warranty, and then it has another profit center.

I see it now.
"Where is Mr James the Integrity of the Device Captain?"
"Oh, we moved him over to grounds and landscape maintenance."

FerretMochaLatte · 09-29-2011, 11:48 PM

I don't want to sound like a bummer or a buzzkill, but although these new devices are impressive, I do not think that it warrants switching over to the new device unless you want a touch experience or if you do not have the current Kindle.

Most of the upgrades they have can be done with an OTA upgrade.

Just saying.

storm9 · 09-30-2011, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by afv011

Yes, I noticed that, I wonder why. Anyway, we will certainly find out when it's out. I reckon it will sell like hot cakes, a dual core at sub $200, and most likely rootable. Can you say Cyanogen?

I can definitely say Cyanogen. I'm really hoping for a dual-boot option with cyanogen and stock amazon-whatever.

shibamistress · 09-30-2011, 02:04 AM

Huh. I didn't expect them to come up with quite so many options. The Kindle Fire is looking very, very appealing to me.....

kaleissin · 09-30-2011, 02:18 AM

[QUOTE=Namekuseijin;1761536]do you understand the meaning of "touch"?[/
QUOTE]

I read one-handed, and change hands a lot. So I need to be able to change pages with both hands.

An on-screen keyboard is fine.

Fbone · 09-30-2011, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

The BOM for the 16GB Playbook is about $190 before losing the Cameras, Bluetooth, GPS, Gyroscope, SD slot. Removing those could make the BOM of the Fire about $160. Oh there is the firmware development, advertising, packaging costs and import shipping costs. but i have no reason to believe they would add another $90 to the cost per device

http://www.ubmtechinsights.com/teard...book-teardown/

oh and eetimes posted an article saying the Fire BOM is probably $150 http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-n...mated--150-BoM quoting UBMtechinsights

You have to also include free shipping to customer or retailer (Best Buy, Staples, etc) mark-up.

molman · 09-30-2011, 04:31 AM

Been interesting reading this thread, and to watch the media report this. There is a definite halo around Amazon and the mind share it commands. For me personally this announcement didn't really excite me as much as I thought it would. Beyond the fact that Amazon with these devices continues to put downward price pressure on eInk Readers and small factor tablets, the devices themselves didn’t really blow me away.

The situation with all the models and multiple variants I personally think creates a mess of choice with price points just too close to each other. Whilst I can appreciate that Ad supported models lead to some nice marketing in being able to say "starting at $79.." etc, I do feel they add complication.

I also must admit that I'm not a huge fan of the industrial design/aesthetics. Whilst I obviously need to reserve judgement until I can hold one myself there feels like a real lack of a design signature with this collection of devices. Everything from the grill like speaker vent on the Touch, to the bezel proportions of the Touch vs Non-Touch to the choice of the silver finish just don't enthral me. They just don't tied together from me like SONY's ereaders did, or even the Kindle 3 and DX did. I get a real sense of looking different for the sake of looking different with a real lack of class.

As to the Kindle Fire, it's a real oddball for me. Amazon services are not as pervasive for me, so I probably lack some of the affiliation those in the US may feel, but it really seems like a mixed bag. The coverflow style UI doesn't present me with a paradigm that makes me sit up, nor does the obvious foundation that is obviously around content acquisition and discovery from Amazons own store. The feature trimming also leaves a lot of interesting applications for tablets by the wayside. Losing the GPS and the maps potential that is rather nice on these larger screen devices verse smartphones.

On top of this we have an Android 2.3 fork with Icecream Sandwich (3.x/4) just around the corner, and the loss of the all the Google apps and services which have a nice value proposition to many users.

Sprinkle in the SilkBrowser which raises the hairs on the back of my kneck with regards to privacy and creepy data collections and really at the end of the day I just feel a little underwhelmed.

Will these devices sell well? For sure. As I said the Kindle Fire is great for the simple fact that it has already set a bar for other devices of such a size as seen with the recent Playbook price drop. As for innovation however, none of this announcement really does much for me, and honestly I was hoping for something a little more.

HarryT · 09-30-2011, 04:49 AM

But you have to remember that this is not being sold as a general-purpose tablet; it's very definitely an Amazon content-delivery platform. It's clearly bring heavily subsidised by Amazon for that reason.

Laura81 · 09-30-2011, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotbob

It is fully disclosed and not hidden in any way that this is the case. I'm not sure why you feel it is "crap". It sounds like for your the $30/$40 extra option would make you happy.

BOb

It would

It's just my personal opinion that it's crap they put ads on their product like that. Granted 'crap' isn't any great technical term.

HarryT · 09-30-2011, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laura81

It would

It's just my personal opinion that it's crap they put ads on their product like that. Granted 'crap' isn't any great technical term.

This is following on, though, from the existing, highly-successful "Kindle with Special Offers" models. It has been proven that many people are very happy to get $30 or so off the price of a product in exchange for accepting advertising.

replica145 · 09-30-2011, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCION

I prefer Amazon over iTunes. I've never purchased anything through iTunes and don't plan to.

Same here, their prices are almost always better and they use audiophile quality (LAME -v0) settings for most of their files. Couple this with the $5 albums every month and the daily deal and I don't even look at the iTunes store anymore.

taming · 09-30-2011, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

The fact that there are two Kindles below the $100 price point is huge. That is what is going to hurt Nook/Sony/Kobo. Unless BN is getting ready to announce a huge price cut on its models or put out that bare bones reader, Kindle is going to regain any momentum that it has lost in the last year.

I received an ad from Amazon this AM promoting what is the $79 Kindle in the US. It is $109 in Canada, and with the various shipping charges it is $124. I went through the purchase process to see the entire cost, but did not complete it. No bargain for us with that and I assume that the price differential will be similar when they finally decide to ship the Fire to Canada, as well.

HarryT · 09-30-2011, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taming

I received an ad from Amazon this AM promoting what is the $79 Kindle in the US. It is $109 in Canada, and with the various shipping charges it is $124. I went through the purchase process to see the entire cost, but did not complete it. No bargain for us with that and I assume that the price differential will be similar when they finally decide to ship the Fire to Canada, as well.

No, it's $109 in the US, too, without special offers. The "special offer" versions are not sold anywhere other than the US.

taming · 09-30-2011, 07:22 AM

I just figured that part out, Harry. Thanks. A non-touch wifi reader for $124 is not a bargain here when I can buy the Kobo WiFi for $99. I guess if I really, really wanted to buy books from Amazon without having to do format conversions etc., I might feel differently.

speedlever · 09-30-2011, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

This is following on, though, from the existing, highly-successful "Kindle with Special Offers" models. It has been proven that many people are very happy to get $30 or so off the price of a product in exchange for accepting advertising.

I used to think that I would not want a Kindle with the advertising.

But I would now welcome saving the money and in addition, would love to get a break from the same old dead author screen savers. Especially as unobtrusive as the ads appear to be.

09-30-2011, 04:31 AM	#352
molman Evangelist Posts: 436 Karma: 538958 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Been interesting reading this thread, and to watch the media report this. There is a definite halo around Amazon and the mind share it commands. For me personally this announcement didn't really excite me as much as I thought it would. Beyond the fact that Amazon with these devices continues to put downward price pressure on eInk Readers and small factor tablets, the devices themselves didn’t really blow me away. The situation with all the models and multiple variants I personally think creates a mess of choice with price points just too close to each other. Whilst I can appreciate that Ad supported models lead to some nice marketing in being able to say "starting at $79.." etc, I do feel they add complication. I also must admit that I'm not a huge fan of the industrial design/aesthetics. Whilst I obviously need to reserve judgement until I can hold one myself there feels like a real lack of a design signature with this collection of devices. Everything from the grill like speaker vent on the Touch, to the bezel proportions of the Touch vs Non-Touch to the choice of the silver finish just don't enthral me. They just don't tied together from me like SONY's ereaders did, or even the Kindle 3 and DX did. I get a real sense of looking different for the sake of looking different with a real lack of class. As to the Kindle Fire, it's a real oddball for me. Amazon services are not as pervasive for me, so I probably lack some of the affiliation those in the US may feel, but it really seems like a mixed bag. The coverflow style UI doesn't present me with a paradigm that makes me sit up, nor does the obvious foundation that is obviously around content acquisition and discovery from Amazons own store. The feature trimming also leaves a lot of interesting applications for tablets by the wayside. Losing the GPS and the maps potential that is rather nice on these larger screen devices verse smartphones. On top of this we have an Android 2.3 fork with Icecream Sandwich (3.x/4) just around the corner, and the loss of the all the Google apps and services which have a nice value proposition to many users. Sprinkle in the SilkBrowser which raises the hairs on the back of my kneck with regards to privacy and creepy data collections and really at the end of the day I just feel a little underwhelmed. Will these devices sell well? For sure. As I said the Kindle Fire is great for the simple fact that it has already set a bar for other devices of such a size as seen with the recent Playbook price drop. As for innovation however, none of this announcement really does much for me, and honestly I was hoping for something a little more. Last edited by molman; 09-30-2011 at 04:36 AM.

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09-29-2011, 11:48 PM	#347
FerretMochaLatte Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 2142 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: NJ Device: Kindle 3, Nook STR, Thinking about a Kobo	I don't want to sound like a bummer or a buzzkill, but although these new devices are impressive, I do not think that it warrants switching over to the new device unless you want a touch experience or if you do not have the current Kindle. Most of the upgrades they have can be done with an OTA upgrade. Just saying.

09-30-2011, 02:04 AM	#349
shibamistress Groupie Posts: 162 Karma: 226854 Join Date: May 2011 Location: Southwest US Device: KSO (3G), Nook Color, android apps	Huh. I didn't expect them to come up with quite so many options. The Kindle Fire is looking very, very appealing to me.....

09-30-2011, 02:18 AM	#350
kaleissin Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 623136 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Norway Device: Kindle Keyboard Wi-Fi, Kobo Glo	[QUOTE=Namekuseijin;1761536]do you understand the meaning of "touch"?[/ QUOTE] I read one-handed, and change hands a lot. So I need to be able to change pages with both hands. An on-screen keyboard is fine.

09-30-2011, 04:49 AM	#353
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,557 Karma: 93980341 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	But you have to remember that this is not being sold as a general-purpose tablet; it's very definitely an Amazon content-delivery platform. It's clearly bring heavily subsidised by Amazon for that reason.

09-30-2011, 07:22 AM	#359
taming Trying for calm & polite Posts: 4,012 Karma: 9455193 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mostly in Canada Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura	I just figured that part out, Harry. Thanks. A non-touch wifi reader for $124 is not a bargain here when I can buy the Kobo WiFi for $99. I guess if I really, really wanted to buy books from Amazon without having to do format conversions etc., I might feel differently.