Kindle Fire:Some serious competition to Apple iPad!
UPDATED: with a link to third party comparison
It looks like Amazon is going to upstage Apple at it’s own game here. They came up with this hand-held entertainment system. It is not for games and some other apps like iPad but I guess for someone who likes to read and watch media and listen music this is some serious gadget to be considered. The best thing with this is that it is completely independent device, no need to sync up with a system! Even better thing is it’s price. $199! 🙂
And it boasts of revolutionary ‘Amazon Silk’ browser which uses the split-browser paradigm to distribute browser load onto the cloud.
Here is the snippet from their web-site.
”
Modern websites are complex. A typical web page requires 80 files served from 13 different domains. This takes a regular browser hundreds of round trips, and adds seconds to page load times.
Amazon Silk is different in a radical new way. When you use Silk, without thinking about it or doing anything explicit, you’re calling on the computing speed and power of the Amazon Web Services cloud (AWS). We’ve refactored and rebuilt the browser software stack to push pieces of the computation into the AWS cloud. This lets Silk do more work, more quickly, and all at once. We call this “split browser” architecture.
Silk browser software resides both on Kindle Fire and on the massive server fleet that comprises the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). With each page request, Silk dynamically determines a division of labor between the mobile hardware and Amazon EC2 (i.e. which browser sub-components run where) that takes into consideration factors like network conditions, page complexity and the location of any cached content.
”
here is comparison on networkworld.com
Dear Ramana garu & Bhanu garu
I was a newcomer to this group and the link i followed takes me to pre-ordering screen @ Amazon and that perked up my skepticism. But now I stand well advised that nothing to worry and I’m a proud participant of highly intellect and accomplished group. Now to the point whether fire is a competition to iPad I doubt very much despite the Amazon echo system. I totally agree with Mohan garu’s point that a Cadillac always thrives in a Chevy echo system as long as people prefer to stand out with an occasional indulgence of a premium product even if they have to beg/borrow/steal for that “I’m worth it” indulgence. Look at the pricing power apple commands and it’s loyal base won’t even complain. Compare this with Jeff Bezos market grabbing tactics with loss leader products and services ex: 99cent Lady Gaga downloads costing him I think $2.99. He believes in economies of scale at ultra low margins and doesn’t mind pouring billions of investors money until he succeeds ex: Amazon distr. Network. That said I am a prime example who will buy kindle fire as a complementing product to my iPad2. So I believe both products will rule in their own markets and if anything fire may extinguish weak androids out there now. Sorry Google!
Hari garu,
Sorry, I used the wrong link and wrong word (please see my response to Mohan’s response below). This is a forum where any debate which is civil is fair game, I believe. Otherwise Mohan will kick me out :-). your point is perfectly valid and so is my reply. hehe
I mostly agree with your assessment about amazon, it is being built on thin margins on massive scale. In fact that is what iTunes (0.99 c song) is too. All these giving the customers a lot of flexibility in choosing. Earlier days you had to buy the whole album to own a good song. those days are gone now. iPad won’t be dislodged in near future but Apple haters will have something to say in some respects.
Best,
Ramana
Hey, watch it. I never kicked out anybody from this board! 🙂
🙂
BTW, I updated it with a link to comparison by networkworld.com
Ramana garu,
Thanks for the post. I was thinking of posting it. I am behind in posting the latest tech news. Amazon sure will shake Apple. My reading from it is , Amazon wants to prove that they can beat Apple on digital consumption i.e. music, media, books..
Apple should go back to doing what they do best.Super HARDWARE with tight software. Apple cannot be a company that can do music, content and movie business (remember Apple TV ?) in the long run. The nature of this content business requires scaling with low margins. In addition there are always folks to copy your model or just restrict their content.
All in all, I am for the $ 199.00 pricing. That alone would hurt Apple.
Bhanu Prakash garu,
Yeah I also posted this without much details ( was already accused of probable gains :-), but that’s fine). The moment I saw the product I could see the plus side of this. Amazon seems to be having a great game plan. They are working on the cloud stuff for years and they prepared the ecosystem for this quite well I believe. It will be interesting to see if they will allow third-party devices to be part of their cloud in terms of having the privileged access and priority processing, whoever want to buy them. If they succeed in a great way they will have to, otherwise there will be an anti-trust case waiting for them! There is already talk Netflix could be bought by Amazon.
As for Apple, I think they would pioneer in terms of HW devices, usability, performance and of course aesthetics. Having said that, they have their share failures like the Mobile Me, Ping stuff for itunes etc. They have and will have tough time chipping into the AD and monitizing part of web as they will have to directly compete with Google etc. There will be some scenes like Godzilla vs. King Kong pretty soon. 🙂
thanks!
Ramana,
I know you have a smiley – but ‘accused’ is too strong a word for seeking clarification.
I believe Kindle will eat away market share from Android devices and barely make a dent in iPad sales. Hyundai came, Kia came – the demand for Mercedes and BMW didn’t die. Only Honda, Ford, Toyota and GM shed some share. 🙂
Mohan garu,
Totally agreed. I didn’t find another lighter word. Probably ‘casting aspersions’could have been better. 🙂 the problem with this e-mail/blog stuff in black and white is that we can’t see a persons body language however much congenial you want to be when making a point. I got bitten by this fact very hard elsewhere. It probably is the same thing from Hari garu’s point of view too! 🙂 I will reply him to his response.
Cheers!
Ramana
Thanks for sharing your excitement. The “split browser” concept appear to be cool but your link in the posting seems like a plug. Hope you are not in anyway gaining for this promo and thanks again if it’s a genuine education effort on your part.
Nope, I don’t have any gains from this. In reality I would rather buy Apple iPad than this for it’s versatility and originality. This posted because I like competition and secondly it appeared to bring in some new ideas.
Thanks for the inquisitiveness!
Hari garu,
I doubt anyone posting at Teluglobe will gain anything except for the joy of sharing with fellow globers.
I really wish I gain something :-), not from Mohan garu, but from amazon/Google.