Tech tutorials, howtos and walkthroughs

Amazon will on Wednesday September 28th 2011 debut to the world their first Tablet, the Amazon Kindle Fire, laden with Google Android goodness. This according to MG Seigler of TechCrunch, who is still scant on details which will be revealed on the glorious day. Surely, a follow up is in the works on this blog!

Great name too, even though it appear but a crib of the Barnes and Noble Cook Color, an Android e-Reader sans Tablet cum colour as per the musings of fellow blogger Kelroy’s in Barnes & Noble’s new Android powered Nook Color. And the Price is Right at US$199 for this 7” scaled down Android beauty by the ranting raconteur herself, Molly Wood of CNET News.

As I ramble on I will show why Amazon’s Tablet is “Kindle” wood for a blazing bonfire that may burn the Apple iPad along with the coming crush of Tablets now dominating the nascent Tablet market. So here is my post launch analysis……

Folks, we have, not a mere crib of the Barnes and Noble Cook Color, the 7” e-book reader made a big splash in November 2010AD went on to rack up three million (3,000,000) devices sold. No, folks, not another plucky unprepared Google Android Tablet contender, but a Gladiator……

But before the festivities begin, a quick history of the rumours pre-launch!

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos originally got out hopes up at the May of 2011AD interview with Consumer Reports in which he said “stay tuned”. August 2011AD came and went, with only a whimper from Taiwanese based DigiTimes with regards to suspicious component purchases by Amazon, ostensibly to build …something. Even our blog got caught up with the hype, with Kelroy posting an article Amazon to give birth to family of Android devices? about a possible Android Tablet family, including smartphones from Amazon.

But it would seem that Amazon is playing their hand in the Tablet game with a full deck, as they have a great deal of advantages in their corner. For one, their Tablet is running Google Android, “custom fitted” Mary J Bligh Style for their product, which is built on RIM Playbook hardware made by manufacturer Quanta, inclusive of the 1.2GHz processor.

Hint to Amazon: go with Nvidia’s out-of-this-world Kal-El Quad-Core GPU (Graphics Processor Units) Processor as per my treatise entitled Nvidia and the Quad-Core Kal-El CPU – Android leaves A5 Dual-Core Processor in the Dust and turn up the Fire on the soon coming Apple iPad 3 by going Super Sayan Level, DragonBall Z Style.

more on Geezam.com:  HBO Max now on Samsung Smart TVs in Jamaica

So despite my poo-pooing of the RIM Playbook after being rejected by O2 in the article RIM’s PlayBook needs to become a Real Tablet, the hardware is solid. I just hope they remove those hard to press buttons on the sides and make it an all touch device, like the Motorola Xoom. Also this product comes with its own customized email, notifications and messaging instead of mirroring them from another device over Bluetooth.

But this is Amazon, so I have little to fear, as their redesign of Open Source Android to suit their product also packs their own slant on an Android market, dubbed the Amazon App Store and the retail support of Amazon’s amazing online shopping experience. Amazon’s clone has a gender-based (or is that biased) statistical advantage akin to its original from whence the idea appears to have been pilfered, Barnes and Noble Cook Color; more women than men read books in a ratio of 3 to 1 according to Forrester Research.

Plus, the Barnes and Noble Nook going Google Android on April 24th 2011 with whole she-bang with full FLASH support and the Google Android Store guaranteed them success with women, who flocked to the new Colour version of the Nook as it was great for reading glossy women’s magazines, such as O Magazine, Home and Garden and Cosmopolitan.

Albeit, common-sense, a typical feminine trait, may have resulted in its popularity, as the sub-US$299 price beat the Apple iPad’s lowest prices of US$499 hands down. Pricing is a strategy that Amazon can also clone and exploit, having successfully launched a US$114 Amazon Kindle subsidized by advertising, which customers don’t seem to mind as it which appears to be wildly popular with Amazon regulars.

Which would explain why former CVM TV Producer and Personality on the hit morning time show CVM at Sunrise and former Miss World 2001 Beauty Queen Regina Beavers sports a Amazon Kindle which she uses to, quote, “kill time or do research on the go” and “download books and articles”.

Leave it to Beaver to reveal this “Necessary Luxury” she totes about in her handbag. Men prefer Tablets, such as the Apple iPad whereas women prefer e-Readers. A disparity translates thus: e-Readers will survive well beyond 2012AD despite analyst InStat being the Grinch trying to steal the e-Reader. E-Readers will not be gobbled up by Tablets as per my article InStat prediction that Tablets to Overtake e-Readers is off base but merely take on a new visage, like the transformation of the Ugly Duckling into a Swan.

more on Geezam.com:  Schneider Electric Framework for control of sustainable objectives in Data Centers

So this transformation is more of an extension of Amazon’s already vast empire built on books and Online Retail, as earlier in the year they sold more e-book than hard covers, holding InStat’s analysis up to the fire in an Electronic Publishing World slowly being ravaged and ironically fuelled by e-book piracy by college student and cheap e-Book owners as per my article Piracy and E-Books in a Tale of Two Cities.

Also with the blessing of the Machiavellian Google Android and its poly-saccharine sweet Ice Cream ambitions to rule the Home Appliance and Car world, another wooden dowel peg in the Ark that Google is building as prognosticated in my article Apple’s Revolution: Android @ Home and IceCream Sandwich in 2015AD.

So not only are the Gods in its favour, but so are the Odds, despite Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, like Prometheus, stealing Zeus Thunderbolt (plug for the Apple iPad to get you-know-what!) to get the Kindle some Fire in its belly.

Hopefully, here too in Jamaica, more people like Book Club and confessed Chess addict Rashida Hanif as per the Sunday May 22, 2011 piece by Petrina Francis in the Jamaica Gleaner can keep the love of Reading in Jamaica alive as it transitions into the Electronic Age……slowly, saving Colege students a buck or two on book purchases.

Slowly, but surely, this is beginning to sound more and more like a real Amazon Tablet Gladiator, as Amazon has the right:

  1. Hardware
  2. Operating System
  3. Gender Support
  4. Retail Support
  5. Pricing Advantage

Unlike the other thus far lackluster Tablet offerings, who individually recording poor sales but when viewed in terms of OS have Apple on the ropes as noted in my article Android Tablets gain on the Apple iPad – Here Comes the Hot Steppa, Amazon lights a Kindle Fire as a Gladiator worthy of the Apple iPad….with half the specs too, staying true to its e-Reader rootsQ

In my next article, I will compare the Amazon Fire to the Apple iPad and the Barnes and Noble Nook Color in terms of specs……until then, don’t run all at once to get a hold of the US$199 Amazon Kindle Fire

About the Author

Read more on Geezam.com