Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 77 posts

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#21

Post by sliverstorm »

blinkingled wrote: post #5

"based on Android 2.1" Ugh. Android is after all cursed on the Tablet and Amazon is just doing their bit. Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Oh and no Email client and no Google integration if that wasn't enough. [Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. The…

Notice their choice in words- it is based on Android 2.1. They didn't say it runs Android 2.1.

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#22

Post by danilocampos »

monochromatic wrote: post #19
danilocampos wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on a modern hardware. There's a more than reasonable reason : Perhaps Amazon's project froze that portion of the code at some point during 2010. They're shipping v1 of a brand new product based on heavily customized code. At some point, you need to eliminate moving targets if you're ever going to ship. Amazon's use of Andro…

That line of reasoning might fly for a $100 tablet. For a $300 tablet, it does not.

> That line of reasoning might fly for a $100 tablet. For a $300 tablet, it does not.

I agree completely.

But this isn't a tablet. This is a Kindle. That's why it's the "Kindle Fire" not the "Amazon 7" Tablet Buddy Pro S 1.0." It's going to be exceptionally good at doing Kindle things: reading books, listening to music, streaming movies – and paying for the privilege.

They're going to sell a shitload of these things. They know how to make a great experience around content.

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#23

Post by blinkingled »

monochromatic wrote: post #19
danilocampos wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on a modern hardware. There's a more than reasonable reason : Perhaps Amazon's project froze that portion of the code at some point during 2010. They're shipping v1 of a brand new product based on heavily customized code. At some point, you need to eliminate moving targets if you're ever going to ship. Amazon's use of Andro…

That line of reasoning might fly for a $100 tablet. For a $300 tablet, it does not.

That's exactly right. Even the cheapest Android tablets from Archos feature 3.2 - 80 G9 for instance at $299. And you can have Kindle, Amazon MP3 and Instant Video on it as it supports Flash. So why would I want to buy a $300 Amazon tablet?

That's not to say it won't sell well - brand and integration might make it work and Amazon never discloses how many Kindles they sell - but it's hard to argue Apple is going to sweat. B&N may be but not Apple and not any other Android Tablet maker.

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#25

Post by danilocampos »

blinkingled wrote: post #23
monochromatic wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That line of reasoning might fly for a $100 tablet. For a $300 tablet, it does not.

That's exactly right. Even the cheapest Android tablets from Archos feature 3.2 - 80 G9 for instance at $299. And you can have Kindle, Amazon MP3 and Instant Video on it as it supports Flash. So why would I want to buy a $300 Amazon tablet? That's not to say it won't sell well - brand and integration might make it work and Amazon never discloses how many Kindles they sell - but it's hard to argue Apple is going to sw…

Were you guys asleep when iPad launched to almost identical criticism, then sold 30 million units?

The game is not about specs anymore. It's about experience.

Amazon has banked a lot of credibility with regard to making great portable hardware and streamlining the content consumption experience. You're seeing this the wrong way around.

People aren't going to buy this because they want a tablet. You and a few hundred thousand other people (technophiles) are the only ones who care about "tablets" that aren't the iPad.

People are going to buy this because they love reading books and love watching movies. And oh, what a convenient and neat way to accomplish that task! What a great gift! etc.

It's going to feel good to use. If that didn't matter to Amazon, it would be running the latest OS they could slap on it, it'd have a spec sheet a mile long, and it would cost a nose more than the iPad.

But that's not their game. They're coming at it from the opposite direction.

And fucking finally – Apple will have a competitor in this space who isn't a complete joke. I'm very, very excited to watch this unfold.

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#26

Post by blinkingled »

danilocampos wrote: post #25
blinkingled wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly right. Even the cheapest Android tablets from Archos feature 3.2 - 80 G9 for instance at $299. And you can have Kindle, Amazon MP3 and Instant Video on it as it supports Flash. So why would I want to buy a $300 Amazon tablet? That's not to say it won't sell well - brand and integration might make it work and Amazon never discloses how many Kindles they sell - but it's hard to argue Apple is going to sw…

Were you guys asleep when iPad launched to almost identical criticism, then sold 30 million units? The game is not about specs anymore. It's about experience. Amazon has banked a lot of credibility with regard to making great portable hardware and streamlining the content consumption experience. You're seeing this the wrong way around. People aren't going to buy this because they want a tablet. You and a few hundred…

I never understood why people insist on intentionally crippled specs before jumping on the experience is everything bandwagon.

Amazon has good specs for the hardware there - it would not have altered their proposition drastically to ship modern OS on it along with support for Email client and many other experience enhancing things that it comes with - UI acceleration, more app compatibility etc. It's nearly free for them. At $300 price point it behooves them to make it a full tablet along with a reader and media player. Without that it's just not a good value in my mind.

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#27

Post by runevault »

mcpherrinm wrote: post #9
blinkingled wrote: post #5

"based on Android 2.1" Ugh. Android is after all cursed on the Tablet and Amazon is just doing their bit. Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Oh and no Email client and no Google integration if that wasn't enough. [Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. The…

2.1 isn't surprising, since they forked a while ago. The GUI will be completely Amazon-built, so the the version of Android probably won't matter all that much to end-users. Since this is all speculation, we'll have to see when the device is unveiled.

Except for the massive speed difference that comes from the JIT which arrived in 2.2

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#28

Post by [deleted] »

mcpherrinm wrote: post #9
blinkingled wrote: post #5

"based on Android 2.1" Ugh. Android is after all cursed on the Tablet and Amazon is just doing their bit. Very disappointing - ridiculous in fact given there should be literally no excuse to put 2.1 on modern hardware. Oh and no Email client and no Google integration if that wasn't enough. [Edit] Consider JIT (2.2+) and low pause GC (2.3+) that they will be missing. Also consider Flash support which is also 2.2+. The…

2.1 isn't surprising, since they forked a while ago. The GUI will be completely Amazon-built, so the the version of Android probably won't matter all that much to end-users. Since this is all speculation, we'll have to see when the device is unveiled.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#29

Post by nextparadigms »

They out-sourced the design to Quanta, and it's similar to the Playbook. What does this mean? It means RIM must've outsourced the design for the Playbook to Quanta, too, otherwise they'd be all over Amazon with a lawsuit when they launch. That's just sad. RIM is in a worse position in the tech world than we think it is.

Regarding the Kindle Fire, I just hope it's not as heavy and thick as a Playbook. It should be more like the Galaxy Tab 7.7 which is very light (~330 grams) and very thin (7.9 mm)

Re: Amazon to Unveil the "Kindle Fire"

#30

Post by dskhatri »

Doesn't anyone else see how the Kindle Fire is very significant for Google, despite the fact that Google may see no revenue from this product?

Google now has a strong partner in its Android patent war, unless Amazon has paid license fees to the likes of Oracle, which would then undermine Google's position.

Post reply on HN