Although the iPad still has market share, you may have heard of the Kindle Fire nipping at its heals. This ultra-cheep tablet promises users an easy way to surf the web, listen to music, and even read books--the intention of traditional kindles. Is the Fire ready to compete in this saturated market with tablets that have built their brands on more than just e-reading? Let's see.
So far, the new Kindle has come under fire for its lack of screen responsiveness, small size, paltry eight gigabyte memory, lack of camera, absence of a microphone, and a tiny app store. It seems like the Kindle Fire's low price is in accordance with its lack of features.
The real issue I see with the Kindle Fire is the lack of variety users have in terms of e-book buying and reading. Unlike the iPad, the Fire only allows users to buy books from Amazon's e-book store. On the iPad, users can buy e-books from a broad variety of sources including the Nook store, iBooks, Google's e-book store, and even from Amazon's online collection. So, if you're looking for the best selection of e-books,the iPad is actually a better choice than the Fire, even though the Fire's genesis is in the e-book world.
Of course, what we have yet to speak of is the price of the iPad in relation to the price of the Fire. The Fire is $300 less than the iPad. In other words, you can buy 2.5 Kindles for one iPad.
For the price, the Kindle will appeal to a different demographic than the iPad--one that is interested in buying a product with limited amenities for a great price. My guess is that we won't be seeing a Marc Jacobs Kindle Fire case any time soon.