Josh Ong
iFixit took apart the device, undertaking in the process the publication's first in-house chip unmasking. The Kindle Fire proved to be relatively easy to tear down and earned a score of 8 out of 10 for repairability. By comparison, Apple's iPad 2 received a 4 out of 10 during its teardown.
In addition to the TI OMAP 4430 chip, the teardown of the Fire found 8GB of Samsung Flash memory, 512MB of Hynix RAM and several other Texas Instruments chips on-board the Fire.
Earlier reports had suggested that Amazon would go with the same chip as Research in Motion's PlayBook tablet in order to keep costs down and move the project along. The PlayBook does, in fact, also use the TI OMAP 4430 chip.
The teardown also noted that the tablet's only button is a power button, a fact that has drawn some criticism from reviewers. Reviews for the device have been generally positive, with most noting that the Fire is a good deal but no "iPad killer."
According to the report, the capacity of the 3.7 volt battery stands at 16.28 Watt-hours, significantly less than the iPad 2's 25 Watt-hours. iFixit also pointed out that charging the Fire over a computer USB port will take longer than the advertised four-hour charge time for when the device is plugged into an outlet.
A recent survey of more than 2,000 developers found growing interest in the Kindle Fire, with 49 percent of those surveyed indicating they were "very interested" in developing for the device. Meanwhile, Apple maintained a dominant share with 88 percent of respondents interested in developing for the iPad.
As for consumers, 26 percent of Kindle Fire buyers say they delayed or put on hold an iPad purchase, according to a survey by ChangeWave and RBC Capital Markets.
Amazon revealed last month that it is building millions more Kindle Fires than originally planned. One recent report claimed the company is looking to build 5 million units by the end of the year.
But, Apple has said it is not worried about the Fire affecting iPad sales. Company executives recently indicated that they believe Amazon's tablet will further fragment the market because it is a fork off Android. Apple reportedly believes the more fragmentation the better, as it will drive customers toward its stable iPad platform.
Amber Neely
Malcolm Owen
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58 Comments
The customer reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly positive, with a clear majority giving the Kindle Fire 5 stars. The most valued critical review still gives it 3 out of 5 stars. It seems that Amazon did it right, despite the modest HW specs.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Color-M...owViewpoints=1
Saying the Kindle Fire contributes to Android fragmentation is like saying OSX is fragmenting Unix.
The customer reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly positive, with a clear majority giving the Kindle Fire 5 stars. The most valued critical review still gives it 3 out of 5 stars. It seems that Amazon did it right, despite the modest HW specs.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Color-M...owViewpoints=1
They did do it right cuz they kept it focused and did a great job on the UI as opposed to the typical clunky Android UI.
They focused on making sure the device was great at ebooks, magazines, music, video, games, email, web browsing, & apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, etc.. (your typical content consumption apps)
Good for them.
Saying the Kindle Fire contributes to Android fragmentation is like saying OSX is fragmenting Unix.
MacOSX is almost never seen as part of the Unix world, when comparing market share.
Why? Because MacOSX blows away Unix/Linux on the desktop. MacOSX doesn't really "suffer" from this fragmentation, does it?
In contrast: there are many small players in the Android world, which gives the term "fragmentation" quite different ring.
One should notice that the Linux/Android community is trying very hard to make it appear that all Androids effectively form one platform.
Luckily for Apple, it turns out that MacOSX only needs to compete with each Android incarnation separately, much unlike what the Android advertising machine wants you to believe.
The customer reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly positive, with a clear majority giving the Kindle Fire 5 stars. The most valued critical review still gives it 3 out of 5 stars. It seems that Amazon did it right, despite the modest HW specs.
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Color-M...owViewpoints=1
We are seeing "PC" all again.
History is repeating it self.
These people who gives 5 stars reviews have used their Fires for minutes and have used about 0 Apps. But ignorance is bliss. If you have not used an iPad, of course the Kindle Fire rulezzzz.
Just like PC. The wast majority of people have never used a mac. They only have used windows. They think windows is great. Rebooting, crashing, viruses are natural part of computing. Nobody screams at their PC if it crashes, they are used to it.
At work I have a Sun Workstation. It crashes about 1 each year. Since I am not used to crashes I go berserk each time its happens. I don't accept crashes, viruses, malware or other stuff since all that is Windows related, no real computer have those problems.
This is also the reason why Windows Phone does not sell well. Most people have used Android/iOS. They don't accept a subpar product. Here people have something to compare against.
Kindle is good enough = people does not try iPad that is way better. Since they don't know is better, they are content and happy.
PC (especially Win7) is good enough = people don't try real computers. (anything *nix based). They accept viruses and so on.
Mobile phones. Android is good enough = people does not try iOS. Fandroids are fanatical. (like all surveys have shown. Most Android users would NEVER use an iPhone. Most Apple users would use an Android if it was better.
So.. this is a sad world that accept second grade products because they never have tried anything else.
The Amazon cult will burst someday. The share price have a P/E over 110. Appel have a trailing P/E of 9. With money 6. Somehow people values Amazon 20 times more then Apple shares. These Wall Street idiots still believe that market share is everything. Its the .com bubble all again. Amazon looses upwards 100 dollar on each Fire sold. Wall Street is happy since they gain market share. Just give away the product and have 100% market share?
Lets hope Apple does not do the same mistake they did in mid 80is. I want to have 1 company that does fanatical, perfect, elegant, art products.
But Apples track record since Steve left early 2011 is not promising....