Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet goes head-to-head with iPad
NEW YORK -- Amazon is applying real heat on Apple.
Even before Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos announced the Kindle Fire tablet at a packed press conference here Wednesday, the market for slate-style computers was on fire. Practically every tech manufacturer under the sun has brought out a table. Yet only the Apple iPad has been a piping-hot best seller, dousing the tablet dreams for companies ranging from Research In Motion to Hewlett-Packard.
Amazon could change that. On the surface, and up in the Internet cloud where the tech battle rages on, the outlook for the new Fire tablet, which ships Nov. 15, would appear promising.
"After seeing details for the Kindle Fire, we feel incrementally more comfortable in our expectation of 2.5 million Kindle Fires" sold over the December holiday quarter, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. The influential tech analyst says demand could outstrip supply.
The price could be compelling. Playing with Fire will cost $199. By comparison, the entry-level iPad costs $499.
The 14.6-ounce Fire has a fast dual-core processor and a protective 7-inch Gorilla Glass display capable of showing off 16 million colors. There's a handsome carousel interface (built on top of its Android operating system) that shows off movies, TV shows, books, magazines, music and other content Amazon is all too happy to sell.
One reason that some companies have not succeeded in the marketplace is "because they built tablets instead of services," Bezos said in an interview after the press conference. "The hardware tablet is (only) a piece of that service. The end-to-end service is what customers really want, the deep integration with all of Amazon's media."
Is memory a problem?
That Fire has only a modest 8 gigabytes of storage may be beside the point. All the content consumers buy (and in some cases rent) through Amazon will be stored and backed up for free online.
The Fire tablet, at least at the outset, is Wi-Fi-only, and its seven or eight hours of battery life doesn't come close to the four-week or so longevity of its Kindle cousins.
Amazon introduced three new products besides Fire: two touch-screen Kindle electronic readers, coming Nov. 21 for $99 (without 3G connectivity) and $149 (with 3G), plus an under-6-ounce non-touch Kindle for $79, which ships immediately.
Two existing Kindles with physical keyboards remain in the lineup, for $99 and $139, with or without 3G. Not all users want a touch device, Bezos says.
Bezos doesn't expect Fire to cannibalize lower-price Kindles.
"There's lots of data that (show that) people buy Kindles, and they also buy LCD display devices. Because you can do different things with them. It's like having a pair of running shoes and a pair of hiking boots. At these price points, people can afford to buy both of them."
That may be wishful thinking, but tablet sales seem to defy gravity altogether. Consumers worldwide are expected to snap up 63.6 million tablets in 2011 compared with 17.6 million in 2010, according to Gartner.
Apple's iPad is forecast to take 73.4% of the market this year, the technology researcher said.
Tablet fever won't cool soon.
Gartner predicts 326.3 million will be sold in 2015. Researcher IDC expects Amazon to sell 3 million Kindle Fire tablets in the holiday season alone.
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