41–50 of 318 posts
So I'm reading along... getting interested... sounds promising... purchase might be on the horizon... Amazon has painted over the rough surfaces of Google’s Android operating system Now I won't even consider buying it until the cyanogenmod port is in decent shape. Why do manufactures always do this to android? The custom UI looks nicer (arguable, roll with it), but always kill usability because they don't understand…
So I'm reading along... getting interested... sounds promising... purchase might be on the horizon... Amazon has painted over the rough surfaces of Google’s Android operating system Now I won't even consider buying it until the cyanogenmod port is in decent shape. Why do manufactures always do this to android? The custom UI looks nicer (arguable, roll with it), but always kill usability because they don't understand…
why do people get upset by this? Android is a nice baseline. Think of it as the tide that raises all ships. What's wrong with a manufacturer experimenting? NB. I don't support lock downs or anything like that, of course. my point is that there's nothing wrong with them customizing and branching it off into something else. isn't that the whole point?
As I've seen it, the users they aren't afraid of change and are upset by the fact they're experimenting, the objections seem to be centered around not having the option to go back when they don't like it. And that the experimentation is often disliked in the first place because they're not less genuinely UX driven experiments, they're more of an attempt at uniqueness for the sake of branding.
so, sounds like Apple's skimming the top end of the tablets, and Amazon's skimming the bottom end.
Other Android manufacturers are probably going to start competing with Amazon's offer as well, lowering prices and cutting corners in the process.
Bezos, on Amazon's refreshed e-Ink readers: So meet the family. These are premium products at non-premium prices. People are going to love these products. This is Amazon's mission statement for product development. They will not compete with Apple's "revolutionary, magical" phones and tablets; instead, they'll sell quality tablets and readers to the average person at great prices. This populist attitude has been miss…
Amazon can pull it off, because they don't need to make money with the tablet: as long as it sells ebooks and movies, it remains profitable for them. Since there's nobody to challenge them on this market, they will get the volumes to drive the BOM prices down, too.
HP hadn't the option to make money by selling ink cartridges for subsidized tablets, as they used to do with printers...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They aren't making an Android table, they are making a Kindle tablet that runs some Android programs.
I imagine thats what they said in the boardroom. But its still a layer ontop of Android.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand this rationale at all. How does the Kindle Fire devalue the Kindle brand name? The Fire is a different product from the e-ink Kindles. You can still say "get a Kindle touch for $99" or "get a Kindle with hard keys for $79."
Audio is the core feature of the original iPod. Reading is the core feature of the Kindle. Reading from an lcd screen is a significantly worse experience than from e-ink. My point is that Amazon releasing the Kindle Fire is akin to if Apple released the iPod Touch (which had new features such as web browsing, youtube etc.) with degraded 8-bit audio.
I don't know, is touchable e-ink coming in near future? Then they could have waited for that, and improve a lot Kindle OS (allow for plugins, real browsing, epub, viable pdf, email, etc) meanwhile.
Bezos, on Amazon's refreshed e-Ink readers: So meet the family. These are premium products at non-premium prices. People are going to love these products. This is Amazon's mission statement for product development. They will not compete with Apple's "revolutionary, magical" phones and tablets; instead, they'll sell quality tablets and readers to the average person at great prices. This populist attitude has been miss…
I think that Bezos quote is actually very Apple-like, what with "people are going to love these" and so on.
Interesting stuff:
* Will still sell current Kindle as "Kindle Keyboard" for same price.
* New non-touch Kindle is 2 ounces lighter than old Kindle, but has half the battery life.
* The new touch Kindle is 1 ounce lighter than old Kindle, with same battery life.
* Kindle Fire is 6-7 ounces lighter than an iPad 2.
* All the prices that were quoted are "with special offers" and the non-ad ones cost more.
So I'm reading along... getting interested... sounds promising... purchase might be on the horizon... Amazon has painted over the rough surfaces of Google’s Android operating system Now I won't even consider buying it until the cyanogenmod port is in decent shape. Why do manufactures always do this to android? The custom UI looks nicer (arguable, roll with it), but always kill usability because they don't understand…
You're making assumptions about usability before using the product.