the tablet war is heating up

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, one thing that does is give you a dedicated iPad you don't have to worry about getting beer, JD, and size 12s on. And if you already have one, you can use them to back each other up.

 

[SteelDraco]

So, www.woot.com had a Motorola Xoom wifi for sale yesterday, and I picked one up. I'm going to be taking it to game from now on. Should be interesting.

 

[IronWolf]

So, Woot® : One Day, One Deal? had a Motorola Xoom wifi for sale yesterday, and I picked one up. I'm going to be taking it to game from now on. Should be interesting.

Probably got a nice price from woot?

Should be a nice tablet for gaming and having easy access to PDFs and such at the gaming table. I love having a tablet for gaming.

 

[Felon]

It looks pretty sweet. I love the larger iPad size but wouldn't mind the Fire for ebooks.

There are blogs and stories about the Kindle Fire being an iPad killer, but I think Amazon is aiming more at the Nook Color, a similar tablet that actually eats into Amazon's ebook sales (unlike the iPad where the iBook store is a dud and the vast majority of books sold for the device are from Amazon for the Kindle app).

It likely will cut into some iPad sales for Christmas but will ultimately sell even more iPads as more people experience tablets fitting into their lives and become interested in more powerful options.

Amazon's combination of a massive content library (not a lot of apps currently but that may well change) and not trying to build an iPad clone will likely do very, very well.

The Kindle Fire is well-positioned. It has some major technical drawbacks. It can't be rooted like a Nook, for instance, so we're in for a walled garden that's likely even more constrictive than Applie's. Also, it has a scant amount of storage (about 6GB), and relies on the cloud for mass storage. But it only has wifi, not 3G, so there'll be plenty of times when the cloud is unavailable.

I've pre-ordered a couple that may wind up being gifts. I'm still looking to hear some things clarified, like whether Netflix will be available.

 

[Relique du Madde]

I heard it was able to be rooted... (although you loose access to all the nice exclusive goody apps once you free it from Amazon).

 

[Banshee16]

Yup, it's absolutely not a iPad killer. It sets the market for two different types of tablets which is really nice. I continue to look forward to what type of other features the 10" model will have when we see it next year!

It's not an iPad killer from the perspective of having comparable features. However, it's entirely possible that it'll take a lot of potential customers away, who figure it's "good enough"....particularly given the price point.

Banshee

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It could also start weeding out lesser eReaders.

 

[falcarrion]

I want to see one in action first. One of the reasons I went from a Kindle DX to a Ipad in the first place was the zoom ability. The ease of the Ipad to work with pdfs compared to the Kindle DX, and all that could be done on an Ipad made a big difference to me. Now my Kindle DX sits gathering dust.
Until I have a chance to play with one I'll hold my opinion on it for now.

 

[John Crichton]

It's not an iPad killer from the perspective of having comparable features. However, it's entirely possible that it'll take a lot of potential customers away, who figure it's "good enough"....particularly given the price point.

Banshee

I guess I'm just not seeing it. The price-points are just too far off to have them in similar markets. The 10" Kindle ... that's the one which will be the true iPad competition.

 

[Banshee16]

Keep in mind that there are many people who underutilize their iPhones as an example. I know tonnes who have them, and use them for e-mail, maybe playing some music, and acting as a phone, but they don't get apps etc.

For those kinds of people, a $299 Kindle Fire, with limited abilities may be good enough.

It won't work for the power users. But those are a minority.

Banshee