Kindle Fire thoughts

One of the guys at work had his Kindle Fire with him today. He got it yesterday night and brought it into work today. He's planning on sending it back.

Since he wasn't overly enthusiastic about it I borrowed it over lunch to play with it and see what I thought.

I don't really know where this fits in so I'll throw it in here, it was WAY heavier than I thought it would be. I have an iPad, I am used to having a little bit of weight to hold while using it. When I picked up the Kindle Fire my first thought was, "Dang! This thing is heavy for how big it is!" Spec's put it at .91 lbs and the iPad at 1.33 lbs, obviously the iPad is heavier but the Kindle Fire felt heavier in my hand than the iPad ever has. I'm guessing that this has to do with the distribution, thickness, balance and a myriad of other form factors.

It was not what I expected at all. Call me naive or whatever you want, I thought it would be a tablet with a smaller subset of features. Not something to compete with the iPad but something that would be a replacement if you were willing to give up the camera, 3G, etc.

I was way off.

The Kindle Fire is an Amazon media portal. It is tied tightly to the entire Amazon experience. It is NOT like an Android tablet, it is NOT like an iPad.

People have talked a lot about how they like what it is for the price. For me personally it is overpriced. I'm sure some of you will take offense or be confused about that statement. Let me explain myself. I don't really buy a lot of media content from Amazon, heck, I don't buy a lot of media content from anyone. It's just not really my thing. I still check books out from the library, watch most of my tv content from TIVO or other *ahem* third party providers. Spotify and Pandora are pretty much all I need for music and frankly, I would rather spend my money on things other than on media content. It's a discussion for another time but I really don't have any desire to own any media content. It takes up too much space for how often I use it. I would rather have ACCESS to media content and pay some sort of reasonable monthly/yearly subscription fee.

Overall I think the Kindle Fire is a great move by Amazon, for Amazon. Making the purchase and subsequent access of their media content as simple and easy as possible will make them a ton of money. This has always been a focus for them, One click purchase patent anyone? It provides a win for the consumer as well, I'm not sure how impactful I feel the consumer win is, time will tell. For consumers to have a simple way to access all of their media content, at least the Amazon media content, and have it be fairly seamless and simple is a win.

It will be interesting to see how the Kindle Fire changes as time moves on.