Gallery: First Look: Up Close and Personal With Amazon's Kindle Fire
Victor J. Blue01amazonFIRE022
Amazon dropped a bomb on the mobile industry on Wednesday morning; four of them, to be exact. Three brand-new Kindle e-reader smart missiles — which aim to dominate the e-ink publishing industry — and one big-ass nuke: the Kindle Fire. Wired.com was at the announcement in New York on Wednesday morning, and we got the chance to take a first look at the devices in action.
Victor J. Blue02amazonFIRE016
The Fire is Amazon’s long-awaited Android tablet, a device which many say could be the one true competitor to the current tablet industry leader, the iPad. Amazon, like Apple, has what all other tablet companies don’t: Millions of customer credit cards on file, streaming video-on-demand services, a massive library of mp3’s (backed by a beefy, cloud-based streaming service), even its own app store. Where all other devices have failed to seriously give Apple a run for its money — be they Android-fueled or otherwise — Amazon seems to have the best shot.
Victor J. Blue03amazonFIRE020
The Fire looks awfully similar to Research in Motion's failed BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, as both are seven-inch sleek black slates. And also like the PlayBook, the Fire's display boasts 1024x600 IPS. The Fire sports a dual-core processor under the hood — just like most other tablets currently on the market — though Amazon isn't giving out details on what kind of chip it is just yet.
Victor J. Blue04amazonFIRE011
The Fire is a bit thicker than other tablets on the market, measuring in at 11.4 mm. Though companies like Apple and Samsung boast about thinness, we're guessing the extra millimeter or two won't make much of a difference to consumers.
Victor J. Blue05amazonFIRE018
Some may hate on the Fire's lack of internal storage space. "Only 8 gigabytes, you say? Balderdash! How shall I store my media files?" If you fall into that camp, you're missing the point entirely. Amazon is one of the largest owners of web services and servers in the entire world. That means local is out, and storage is going the way of the cloud.
Victor J. Blue06amazonFIRE012
Amazon plans to utilize its cloud servers further with its brand spanking new "Silk" browser. With Silk, Amazon takes advantage of its server power to deliver web content you access, lessening the load on other external, non-Amazon servers. Essentially, Amazon's servers will do more of the heavy lifting. And that's a good thing.
Victor J. Blue07amazonFIRE014
True to its media company lineage, Amazon will launch the Fire in conjunction with at least one publisher, bringing magazine content to the new device. Conde Nast will offer 17 of its consumer magazines for reading on the Fire, in digital and PDF formats (a luxury once available only to Apple). It's not clear, however, if every one of Conde's titles will be available in both formats on the Fire (Amazon representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment). (Disclosure: Conde Nast is Wired.com's parent company.)
Victor J. Blue08amazonFIRE017
We'd be remiss to not mention the most attractive feature of the Fire, and it's got nothing to do with the hardware. The Fire will launch in November — yes, just in time for the holiday shopping season — for a paltry $200. That's one of the lowest prices from any premium Android tablet manufacturer on the market (if not *the* lowest). While it may lack a few features that other tablets have (GPS, front and back-facing cameras), they aren't deal-breakers. The price is too nice to worry about most else.
Victor J. Blue09amazonFIRE023
If the new Fire wasn't enough for us, Amazon dropped some other surprises on us practically out of nowhere. Starting today, the company is launching a new, cheaper Kindle revamp for a super-cheap $80, as well as a touch-enabled Kindle for $100, aptly named the Kindle Touch. Finally, the Kindle Touch 3G will cost $150. With such low barriers to entry on prices, there's no stopping a flood of new Kindles from getting into the hands of millions of new adopters.
Victor J. Blue10amazonFIRE024
The new Kindle Touch is a compromise between going full tablet or opting for the e-reader route. Doing away with nearly all buttons, the Touch is just a $20 step up from the regular Kindle, which is practically nothing for those who find touch sensitivity to be an important feature.
Victor J. Blue11amazonFIRE019
Make no mistake — in the short run, the iPad isn't going anywhere. In fact, other Android tablet manufacturers have the most to fear from Amazon's tablet play. The company is one of the few vertically integrated challengers to take on the Android environment. Manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, Toshiba and others may offer the hardware, but lack all the services and content to back it up. But in the long run, Amazon's fiery Android offering may make a dent in Apple's market. The question is: How well does the damn thing work? Looks like we'll have to wait till November to find out.
