Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Kindle Fire Surfaces
MrCrassic was the first of several submitters to write in about the Kindle Fire: "It looks like another competitor has joined the fight for tablet market share. Amazon released specs and pics of its newest offering, the Kindle Fire, which is bound to turn heads at $199. However, I wouldn't sell your Nook Color or iPad just yet. From the article: 'The Kindle Fire doesn't have an embedded camera or a microphone. The device offers Wi-Fi connectivity, though not 3G access, and comes with a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime, the company's $79-a-year membership service that includes streaming video and free two-day shipping.'"
I'm already sick of hearing people bitch about how it doesn't have a camera and how you can't make Skype calls with it. It's not intended to do that. Amazon is selling it purely as a media consumption device to get you to use all their media services (video, audio, books, etc).
No, it's a full blown android tablet. Without a camera or mike, which I myself never use anyway on a tablet.
Those devices were far overpriced. They tried to compete with the iPad at the iPad's price point with an inferior device. To the average consumer, they look at these smaller devices they've never heard of for the same price as an iPad and they say, "Well for that price, why wouldn't I just get an iPad?"
This actually fits the bill. It is a reasonable competitor for the way most people use the iPad. Does it have limitations, sure. But it's $200. Most people to this point have thought that you had to spend $500 and up for one of these little tablet internet surfing thingys. For that price, they could have a nice full-featured laptop (which they probably already have).
This gives you the core tablet computing functions at an affordable price. I know /. neckbeards will complain that this is not a full replacement for every electronic device in the world, but for most people, this works.