Amazon is a goods seller that uses Kindles as a platform to sell their goods (see also B&N with the Nook). Apple is a hardware company that uses content (music, games, etc) as a justification to buy the platforms to hold/play them.
Not true. Apple makes a lot of money off of content.
ehhhh… Kinda sorta.
Basically, Apple is a hardware company that uses apps, music, etc. to drive their hardware business, and while they make a ton of money with it, it’s a drop compared to the hardware sales. Apple made 1.4b off the iTunes Store in Q3 2011, but sold 13b worth of iPhones and 6b in iPads. Now, that 1.4b isn’t a trifle, but it’s 1/6th of what they made off the iPad.
On the other hand, Amazon will sell you a cheap gateway into their ecosystem.
Not true.
Wife got her Fire on Sunday. I’ve barely touched it except to get it on the wifi and make sure her account was set up correctly (and 1-click purchasing was disabled), she’s been on the thing constantly.
I’m going to force her to let me play with it this weekend, mostly to see if I can sideload gmail and some other Google apps (seriously Amazon, fuck you - I should be able to have gmail, docs, reader, calendar and more by default).
Got mine in the mail yesterday (yay for day late birthday presents!). Having not played with one before, I’m pretty impressed with the build quality of the thing so far. Netflix streaming worked well (with headphones; the speakers on the thing aren’t even external iPhone quality, and I wasn’t expecting them to be). Web browsing worked well also.
I’ll need to play around with it some more, but I’m happy so far.
Is there a source for that? My impression is that Apple makes a ton off of the app store and iTunes.
The app store not so much. They announced a while back they had paid out 1b to developers, but Apple’s take of that was only 300m. Or, they made in 2-3 years of the app store what they lost giving away bumper cases.
So I guess the app store is really just about consumer retention for the devices (if they have 300 apps installed, they’re unlikely to dump them and move to android). OK, thanks!
$300m before expenses. I’m sure they’re not losing money on the appstore, but it’s not a major revenue source.
What kind of battery life are people seeing with the Fire? I am kinda debating getting one for a Reader but I am curious how the battery is holding up in the real world.
I’m seeing at least 6-8 hours of heavy web browsing use.
What about local (not streaming) video battery life? Wondering how this would do for airplane entertainment for kids.
I read an article that amused me. Parents have been handing the Fire to kids and kids have been accidentally one-click buying stuff. One kid saw the recently viewed list of toys his dad had been looking at and clicked on all of them and bought them, ha ha.
Thing is, you can turn off one-click buying but you can’t permanently disable it. Kids can turn it back on just by clicking on the one-click buying option, apparently.
Anyway, Amazon should send a buy notification email to the account holder, so I don’t think there’s great risk as long as you check your email every day.
Ha, I have never turned on one-click because I would end up buying shit by accident.
Well, I am back to the iPad2. I took a look at a book I am reading on the iPad (after reading it for a while on the Fire) and the smoothness of the Kindle app on the iPad is very noticeable. I will give my Fire to my daughter as a bonus Christmas present. I am still convinced that my sweet spot is a seven inch iPad, but I will put up with the bulkiness in order to get the smoother software performance. I am pretty sure that my wife will enjoy her new Fire because she even commented that the size was easier for her to read with (compared to my iPad).
I really think Apple is leaving money on the table by not releasing a 7 inch tablet. If they had released one 6 months ago it would have sucked all the oxygen out of the room for the Fire’s release. Just announcing an upcoming release a few months ago might have been enough. Letting the dominant Internet retailer get traction in your market can’t be smart. Does Apple have a game plan anymore or is everything on cruise control now that Jobs is gone?
Apple, even under Jobs, never, ever announced a product that didn’t have a ship date within sight of the keynote. The big exception to this was the original iPhone announcement and that was because the FCC approvals process would have let that cat out of the bag.
You’ll never see Apple give a keynote that says “coming later this year.”
Also, people thought Apple was leaving money on the table by not creating a netbook.
Pshaw. Fire’s winning on price, not its 7-inchiness.
7 inches sucks. If you want small, use a phone. If you want to read, use a full-size 9.7-inch tablet. No need for anything in-between.
We don’t need a 7-inch iPad. We need a lighter 9.7-inch iPad.
Sez you. I really like the size m’self.