Amazon Offically Announces the $199 Kindle Tablet

[rohitbaran]

This looks like a promising product, maybe a low cost alternative to iPad and Galaxy Tab.

 

[sundragon]

[citation][nom]razor512[/nom].... a device that now cost you $80 a year to run.Kinda like how a $200 iphone ends up costing you $2400 within 2 years.[/citation]

Hi - interesting point, I have a few questions:

Where are you coming up with $80?
Why would Amazon start charging for something and kill their business?
Their current price has profit coming from consumption of their current ecosystem built into it - So unless the business model flops and people don't use Amazon services there is no reason to start charging.

 

[sundragon]

[citation][nom]bender3000[/nom]What about the rumors that claim this is nothing more than a Blackberry Playbook?[/citation]

It sure looks like it but with a richer support ecosystem hopefand at $200 compared to ~$350for the base RIM tablet with almost no native apps...

 

[razor512]

[citation][nom]sundragon[/nom]Hi - interesting point, I have a few questions:Where are you coming up with $80?Why would Amazon start charging for something and kill their business?Their current price has profit coming from consumption of their current ecosystem built into it - So unless the business model flops and people don't use Amazon services there is no reason to start charging.[/citation]


the device comes with amazon prime (1 month trial) which gives you access to their cloud services (eg storing music and other files on their servers)

their browser also uses their servers to handle the CPU intensive parts of loading a webpage (this makes loading websites faster, similar to what was done with skyfire http/www.skyfire.com/)

It is not clear if the browser requires amazon prime to maintain access to their servers. if it requires it then you will have a device that requires you to spend $80 a year for amazon prime.

Also in the demo videos, most of the features that they showed off were cloud based features (meaning if the selling point is what they showed off mostly, then you will have to pay $80 a year to continue using those features).

 

[eddieroolz]

It looks nice enough, even if it's stopgap hardware.

 

[fishyfish]

So now I can not only buy an ebook for more than paperback inc. postage to my door, but also pay for wathching movies on tiny 7" screen.

Yay!

 

[thrasher32]

Call me stupid but I still don't see the utility of a tablet unless you travel a lot or you walk around with it all day to do a job (like a doctor or engineer).

I mean, I have a smartphone and a pc and a laptop and a bookshelf full of books.

I'd rather have $199 worth of food, gas, or clothing. Sorry Amazon, cuz I do loves you.

 

[razor512]

Just found more info, in the absence of amazon cloud access (which you pay for) the browser will handle all processing locally and still work without amazon prime. So even without amazon prime you can get most of the functionality of the device.

 

[sundragon]

[citation][nom]razor512[/nom]the device comes with amazon prime (1 month trial) which gives you access to their cloud services (eg storing music and other files on their servers)their browser also uses their servers to handle the CPU intensive parts of loading a webpage (this makes loading websites faster, similar to what was done with skyfire http/www.skyfire.com/)It is not clear if the browser requires amazon prime to maintain access to their servers. if it requires it then you will have a device that requires you to spend $80 a year for amazon prime.Also in the demo videos, most of the features that they showed off were cloud based features (meaning if the selling point is what they showed off mostly, then you will have to pay $80 a year to continue using those features).[/citation]

well, you can root it - Amazon says they aren't going to do anything to stop you and RIM just dropped the price of the Playbook $200 and are exiting the tablet market - Amazon's lunch is served.