Kindle Fire review

The Kindle Fire is a 7 inch tablet which links masterfully with Amazon’s impressive collection of digital books, magazines, videos and music. It is a user friendly product and boasts a fantastic web browser which comes with a curated Android app store which includes most of the hot apps of the moment such as Netflix, Pandora and Hulu. The Kindle Fire comes at a super affordable price and has brilliant screen quality for the price tag.

Of course there are drawbacks too. The budget price means that there are no premium features you’d expect such as 3G Wireless Internet, cameras, microphone or GPs. But the biggest issue might be the mere 8GB storage space, with no expansion slot.

The screen brightness could be better, and the application selection does not come close to Apple’s or Google’s frankly. You will also need an Amazon Prime subscription in order to take advantage of some of the more unique Features included with the Kindle Fire.

Although it lacks tech specs that would have been great, for the price you really could not ask for anything more. It is a thumbs up for the Kindle Fire.

Kindle Fire is on fire!

The Kindle Fire tablet was announced by Amazon.com and has some traits that will separate it from the crowded competitors. It retails at a low price of $199 and has a fast browser called Amazon Silk, which affords access to an abundant ecosystem of movies, music, apps, and books.

 

The Fire has a 7inch color touch screen at 1024 x600 resolutions and is lightweight at 14.6 ounces and functions over Wi-Fi only. Those features put the Kindle Fire squarely in competiton with Barns and Noble’s Nook Color, a 7inch e-reader and browser enabled divide which sells for $249.

 

Most consumers will attempt to compare the Fire with Apple iPad 2, a 9.7 inch tablet on Wi-Fi with a price tag at $499. The iPad 2 is already the runaway market leader, with more than a 70% market share. Time will tell if the Kindle Fire will be able to leave its mark in the industry.

E-books more expensive than printed counterparts

Although more and more consumers are becoming comfortable with digital books, many want to know why buying e-books are more expensive than buying the same book in paperback. An example of this is Michael Connelly’s recent legal thriller, “The Fifth Witness” receive more one star reviews on Amazon than five star reviews, in large part because of some annoyed reviewer’s response to its whopping $14.99 price tag.

 

Even as physical book sales such as paperbacks and hard covers fall, publishers’ fixed costs are coming under greater pressure. One area where publishers can cushion the blow to their industry is by keeping e-book prices higher. One New York publishing executive stated that the industry will not be in a good shape if e-book sales reach 99 cents in future.

 

If you do look, e-book prices on nationally bestselling books are higher today than they were a year ago. This is because the six major publishers have adopted a new pricing model, which is now known as “agency pricing”, which is also endorsed y Apple. Publishers are worried about the deeply discounted $9.99 digital price for best-sellers promoted by Amazon.com agreed to set the consumer prices of their digital titles. Under the above stated module, retailers act as the agent for each sale and take 30%, returning the other 70% to the publisher. This makes it impossible for the retailer to discount the price of the book without prior approval of the publisher.

 

Despite all this, publishers will inevitably face pressure from consumers over high prices for digital editions, as they might as well buy the hard cover or paperback editions.

Amazon’s Kindle breaking new ground

It would seem as though people want products that redefine the most basic of services as technology infiltrates every part of our lives. That can be seen by Amazon.com reporting that the Amazon Kindle replaced Harry Potter as their best seller ever, this past Christmas. People want things instantly, and on the go. So why pay $24.99 for a New York Times best seller in hardback when you can by the Kindle for $9.99?

Sure there are the purists who say there’s no replacement for the real and authentic print book, with crisp white unturned pages, and I’m inclined to agree with them.  But when you consider the benefits of this product, such as the fact that you can buy of 4000 different titles from the Kindle store, have it delivered wirelessly to wherever you are in the world and enjoy it at a much cheaper price than paying for print versions, why hold revolution back?

 

I agree that the traditional print should not be utterly replaced – but roll with the times, people.  The Internet is already bigger and more brilliant than any library anywhere in the world. Now what would have happened if we had not allowed for that revolution to take place?