Five Reasons why the Kindle Fire Matters
Pricing
After the holiday season, I’d expect Apple to lower the price of its iPad. Whether this happens in January or next spring when the iPad 3 is expected, a price change is almost certainly coming. My best bet is Apple will follow the model it initiated with its iPhone line.
Most likely, Apple will continue selling the iPad 2 even after the iPad 3’s arrival. However, the price of the older model will drop significantly; perhaps not as low as the $199 the Amazon is charging for its Kindle Fire, but close to it. In other words, Apple isn’t going to let Amazon control the lower-end of the tablet market, even if it means lower profit margins in this area.
Streaming
Apple really needs to figure out a way for us to stream videos directly from iTunes. And no, I’m not talking about using AirPlay Mirroring. Renting a movie, for example, should be as simple as paying for it on your iPhone/iPod touch or iPad and hitting a play button. Instead, currently, we must first download the movie and then begin watching it.
Magazines
At last count, Apple’s Newsstand includes 480 magazine and newspaper titles from across the world. While on day one, theKindle Fire will offer only 400 titles, it will do so with an additional incentive for customers – freebies.
Amazon is offering something Apple is not: a 90-day free trial for many of its most popular titles. These include Bon Appetite, Wired, and ESPN The Magazine, among others.
Kindle Fire - "Free" Movies
As The Wall Street Journal indicated earlier today, the Kindle Fire’s most significant feature could be Amazon Prime. For $79, customers are able to enjoy unlimited and instant streaming of over 10,000 movies and television shows. In addition, these users are also able to borrow from Amazon up to 12 books a year at no additional cost.
The iPad Mini
By next year, the Kindle Fire line is expected to include two models; the current 7” model and one similar in size to the iPad 2, which is 9.7”. In doing so, Amazon will likely force Apple to release an iPad Mini, which I expect them to do sometime next year
My say is that it wont, Apple is wayy to big and wayy more features that anything the kindle can handle. Kindle still has a long way to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment