Apple Sees No Threat in Kindle Fire, $200 Tablets

Apple is so smug and such a bully in the market..... they will never get my money for their overpriced garbage thats made in China.

Ah, a non-Apple-biased Tom's Hardware article.

Kindle Fire = poor mans Ipad.

They probably see no threads because they know many brainless apple fans will stay loyal to them forever.

Of course they wouldn't be threaten, they've become the definition of fad. Having anything Apple is what makes you cool nowadays and since that's what today's society strives for (to stand out amongst the crowd, feel popular. In other words, superficialism) then of course Apple would dominate the market. It has nothing to do with innovation, like someone pointed out before me, Apple has never been innovative.

I know they say that you can't generalize in life. But in one way you can - if someone buys apple products they are either A) ignorant about technology or B) cannot take responsibility for themselves.

I've used both, and for 200 dollars, I'll still take the kindle fire over the iPad any day. The iPad doesn't offer anything I actually need that's worth the 200+ dollars it's asking for.

So Apple sees no threat? They should, because it is. I didn't buy an iPad because I bought a kindle fire instead, because they serve the same purpose for me, and the Kindle Fire was half as expensive. If that doesn't translate to a threat for Tim Cook, he's not ready to be a CEO for a company like Apple.

I work in retail. We had HUNDREDS of kindle fires fly off the shelf for the holiday season... and tons of ipads left over. If we hadnt run out of fire's we would have sold many many more...

I found it interesting, I got a relative an iPad for christmas (cause she asked), and when I went to Frys to pick it up, the ONLY thing they had were iPads people had returned.

makes me wonder how many of those 15m iPads were returned....

Hi

I own computer shops in the UK , we dont sell anything Apple by the way, as I like my companies to run MY way not theirs...

Anyway, I bought a Kindle Fire Touch from the US as they are not sold yet in the UK...

I wanted to see whether they were any good and what the fuss was all about...

I have had it for around a week now and have sideloaded apps and browsed the net and read several books on it, the only thing I could not do was buy certain things from Amazon UK,

My impression of it and its effect on Apple....

It WILL have a HUGE EFFECT on Ipad sales and the tablet industry in general....

Its too good and too cheap not to...

At the very least Apple have absolutely no chance any more of increasing their tablet prices every year as they have in the past...that would be commercial suicide for them..

Looking at it from a UK point of view.... it WILL sell MILLIONS...absolutely no question of that, and all those millions of people will NOT be buying Ipads after using a Fire...

On a scale of 100 , before I bought it I "thought" it would rate around a 20.... having used one I would give it around 90 to an Ipads 40.....The Fire has a few things to be uprated (camera, sc card, etc) but as with all new devices the second version is better than the first etc...

Apple are in REAL trouble with the Fire and they MUST know it...no matter what they "say"

All the best Brett

ericburnby :

"Typical response by an idiot hater. I'm an engineer and in our office there are 22 engineers & technicians, all extremely familiar with technology, especially anything related to computers and electronics.We have one GS2 user, 5 BB users and the rest are iPhones. Saying Apple users don't understand technology is just a way for you elitist haters to try and find some way to make yourself look better at the expense of another."


Being an engineer you wouldn't think you're being ignorant in general about technology making that comment? You know, its easy to tell when people are biased towards something and its pretty obvious that the people you mention as well as yourself are being ignorant, stating that fact that you're all savvy and literate with technology doesn't actually help your argument if you can imply Apple products are better, at least by design in hardware. You'd think marketing doesn't play a part? I mean really? Saying you're literate about technology you'd think, especially in the phone department like you mention that there's plenty of other phones out there, that in terms of hardware and ESPECIALLY price, offering something more? Has less to do with "elitist" and more to do with people who ALSO know technology know what they're talking about and try to give insight to something more than superficialism like someone mentioned. I have an iphone, and I understand these things I am mentioning all to well, that's why I don't bash peoples comments when they make sense in regards against Apple products. Doesn't mean my iphone hasn't been good to me.

Only product of apples I'll ever buy(I have an Iphone4 but because I got it for free)is a mac book pro, and thats because well Apple makes good laptops, I have to give them that.

I don't know, my sister has had the same macbook for over 6 years, and she is dreadful with technology(broken two laptops,a desktop,and multiple phones)...that says something to me about macbooks

Blind ignorant Apple idiots will forever be idiots.

Well if Kindle Fire is threatening Apple's Ipad you all u will hearing news of "Apple suing Amazon on Kindle Fire" on X patent being violated.

I think they don't feel threatened because the Kindle Fire has a different target than the iPad 2. They are extremely different hardware wise, and even subscribe to different app markets. Some people want a 10 inch screen, but still want a device that's thin and light and gets good battery life. The first android tablet to truly beat the crap out of the iPad 2 is the Transformer Prime. Despite all the android tablets out there in the $400 range that compare spec-wise to the iPad (notice the only ones with the similar slender build, quality screen, and good battery are much closer to the iPad 2's price, with the exception of the aforementioned Asus TF Prime), they still don't have the software polish and OS smoothness on a consistent basis that the iPad 2 has. I have used them side by side.

The first tablet to truly offer that kind of smooth operating experience despite the immaturity and newness of Honeycomb, is the Transformer prime with its exceptional Tegra 3 processor. Keep in mind I don't own an iPad, and I am a true android geek. I own the Galaxy Nexus, and when Ice Cream Sandwich hits the Transformer Prime, watch out. The iPad 3 better be freaking amazing. ICS is truly mature, consistent and smooth. I've used a bucketload of android devices, all the way back to donut. ICS is amazing. It's iOS smooth and mature. It will finally bring a unified architecture for developers on google based smartphones, tablets, and other handheld media devices.

It's going to do wonders for android developers. The $200 tablets will be a LOT smoother and more consistent then, and analysts predict even more developers will start making apps that were previously only iOS for android.

But do the $200 tablets really pose a threat to the $500 iPad 2 and upcoming iPad 3? I agree that the do not. I don't see a single $200 tablet with an 10" IPS screen, 10 hours of video playback, HDMI out with an adapter (or MHL cable if on android), an adapter that lets me plug in USB devices such as my digital camera's memory card for viewing my photos, a bluetooth stack capable of running a keyboard for content creation, and a rear and front facing camera for communication with others. Are there $400-$500 tablets that the iPad 2 should be afraid of? Yes. But the $200 players lack enough of what the $500 players have that they are targeting completely different markets.

I own either one and do not plan to but aren't we comparing Coconuts and Walnuts here ?
I mean the iPad and the Kindle are aimed at a different market segment and intended for different uses.
If that is the case than one should not have a major impact on the sales of the other.

" Having anything Apple is what makes you cool nowadays and since that's what today's society strives for (to stand out amongst the crowd, feel popular)."

It would be nice if made you look "cool". It actually makes you look stupid and clueless.

I bought my parents the Kindle Fire for Christmas.. The tablet is really just a giant smartphone with no cellular radio, but neither of my parents own smartphones so this is a completely new thing for them.. They absolutely love the damn thing.. I played with it for a week or 2 before I gave it to them and I enjoyed using it too but there were some things I didnt like.. The hardware in there is actually pretty damn nice.. Its the same 1Ghz Cortex A9 based dual core CPU as found in most everything now available and has the PowerVR SGX540 GPU which is one of the better GPUs around at this point.. Not as good as the Mali-400 and definitely no where near the iPad 2's SGX543MP2, but still better than Tegra2... Anyway, as nice as the hardware is its still not as fluid doing things as it should be.. I was hoping for an ICS rom to become available before I gave it to them, but that was extremely wishful thinking.. If it wasnt for the fact that there are supposedly Tegra3 based 7" tablets coming out for $250, then I would definitely consider getting me a Kindle when Im ready to buy my own tablet.. But I wouldnt buy it until I could get ICS on there.. As far as the iPad goes, it definitely does have that polished smoothness that I would expect from the Kindle, but at the price that they run, its not even far to compare them..

Hmm the last two years have been the "year of Android" for my household. Purchased 1 android tablet and 4 android phones in that time frame.

I may not represent the majority but Apple can stuff a sock in it as I will never own one of their closed loop devices.

Must be the techie and developer in me as I prefer control over my devices and how I use them.

"but we don’t think people who want an iPad will settle for a limited-function device"
i laughed my ass off on that statement, i always thought the iPad was the epitome of limited-function device

@Tomfreak
if i recall Apple attempted to sue Amazon from using the term app store, and failed

Apple can laugh all they want, sure they have cash reserves in the billions. God knows they will need that cash as life support in the coming months and and years until they are bankrupt again.

Sure Tim Cook was Steve Jobs apprentice and so on. But Cook is NO Steve Jobs. Won't be long before the board pressures Cookie boy in doing what they want. Something they could NOT do with Jobs the 2nd time around.

After all, what is Apple? Who is Apple? Apple was Steve Jobs the person, his vision, his ideas, and his leadership and his iron will. The board that fired him bought Jobs 2nd company Next, and then rehired Jobs and gave him back his company that they ran to the ground because none of those CEO's who replaced Jobs had a vision or any clue what they were doing!

The same will happen again, Tim Cook is safe for now, seems Jobs had some projects left to do but with his passing didn't get to it. Once those projects comes to pass, Apple will loose focus and Cook will end up taking orders from the board or be replaced, or worse have these new marketing guys and accountants think of fads for short term profits. Investors will jump ship to the next best thing. This time Microsoft won't be around to save them again. Apple will end up being the next RIM (BlackBerry)

As for Apple products I personally am not a fan. I think majority of people who buy an iPhone, iPods, iPads, just buy them for their sleek design. It's no different then women buy one of those ugly Louis Vuitton Purses and brag about them.

It's no different about Microsoft phones, everyone hated them carriers didn't stock them, now that Nokia had redesigned the first true WP7 called the Lumia 900 which should be out in mid March.

It seems a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon of this new sleek designed Nokia phone that is now being sold as the Lumia 800 (Nokia N9) except that it has no front facing camera and a smaller screen. The Lumia 900 is the first true windows phone.

The software is seamless, but once the Apollo OS (aka WP8) hits the market by years end or next year, Apple will have its fiercest competitor. Windows 8 will be operating on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones.

So bottom line Tim Cook should worry and be very worried!!!! With Google's ICS and Microsoft Windows 8, they will be bombarded by all sides. Not to mention with Samsung's and ASUS pad designs, joined by Nokia for phone designs of late, Apple will have have a run for its money.

The future will be interesting and it will be a battle on all fronts which will be great for consumers.

All that profit is going to their heads. One day, CrApple is going to regret opening their fat mouth.