- How the Kindle Fire Will Set the Tablet Landscape Ablaze
- Amazon Kindle Store / Music and Cloud Drive
- Apps and Games / Adding it All Up
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Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Apps and Games
Amazon's AppStore for Android offers thousands of applications and games for the Kindle Fire. Amazon limits applications on the Kindle Fire to only those found on its own AppStore, but even so, you'll find most of the popular games and apps that most tablet users want, and it's likely we'll see Amazon invest much more in the AppStore in the coming months. It remains to be seen whether developers will embrace the Kindle Fire as a development platform, but if Amazon sells the millions of devices that many predict, it will be hard for game and app developers to ignore the Kindle Fire audience.
Adding it All Up
Access to any one of Amazon's services on a portable device is compelling, but when you wrap them all into the Kindle Fire, it becomes a real game changer. Is it enough to compel those in the market for a tablet to choose the Kindle Fire over other tablet offerings? Some think not, pointing to the features lacking from the Kindle Fire that are available in other tablets. However, if you look at how consumers are interested in using tablets, it becomes pretty clear that the Kindle Fire fits the bill.
Google recently conducted research on how tablet users use tablets. Its research revealed the following:
- 84% of tablet users use the device for gaming.
- 78% of tablet users use the device to search for information.
- 74% of tablet users use the device for emailing.
- 51% of tablet users use the device to consume entertainment.
- 82% of tablet users use the device primarily at home.
- Only 46% of tablet users use the device for reading eBooks.
Source: http://services.google.com/fh/files/blogs/AdMob%20-%20Tablet%20Survey.pdf
What does this information tell you? Tablet users will find everything they want to do in the Kindle Fire, and at the same time, the Kindle Fire will offer a first-party Kindle reading experience to tablet users for the first time. It's likely that book readers will still prefer the eInk screen on one of Amazon's other Kindle devices, but for reading magazines, children's books, and other similar content, the Kindle Fire is almost guaranteed to please.
If you add it all up, it seems obvious that Amazon isn't focused on competing with the iPad. Instead, Amazon is offering a powerful and convenient way to consume the services that it provides, and do it in a way that is comprehensive and cohesive. In a world where consumers are used to the plug-in-and-sync tablet that is app-centric, the Kindle Fire (which never has to be plugged into a computer) may be just the right recipe to really shake things up.
Oh, and one more thing. Let's not forget that the Kindle Fire is $199, which is $300 cheaper than the lowest model iPad. Throw out everything else you've read in this article, and that fact alone is enough to make the Kindle Fire a favorite gift this holiday season for millions of consumers. I know I'll be one of them.