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| Amazon Kindle Touchpad; just split the tablet market with Apple | |
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| Topic Started: Sep 29 2011, 01:19 PM (272 Views) | |
| wildie | Sep 29 2011, 01:19 PM Post #1 |
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Amazon just split the tablet market with Apple. The Kindle Fire is subsidized because you’ll shop more. Apple will stay high-end. Every tablet maker in the middle is screwed. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/amazons-kindle-fire-just-nuked-the-tablet-market-winners-and-losers/59147?tag=nl.e539 Guess its best to wait until the dust settles before buying one of these devices! |
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| Reditall | Sep 29 2011, 02:41 PM Post #2 |
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Posted Image |
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| wildie | Sep 29 2011, 03:49 PM Post #3 |
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Oh my gawd, Red! These cartoons are killing me! :sign10: I'm losing sleep, searchin' the net for more things to post, just so as to see another one! :roflol:: |
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| Reditall | Sep 30 2011, 04:52 AM Post #4 |
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With the introduction of the Amazon Flame to the tablet market, I thought it might be worthwhile to post some of my initial thoughts about this new kid on the block. It appears that the Flame is primarily a device for reading books, listening to music, and watching videos all marketed by Amazon. It can also do other things that tablets like the iPad can do like surfin' the net, sending emails, and other useful stuff made possible by small program called apps. The Flame costs about one quarter of the cost of an iPad, how was it possible for Amazon to succeed in drastically cutting costs of their device? The Flame is similar to what in the early days we called a dumb terminal. A dumb terminal was a convenient device that was connected to a big computer called a mainframe. All of the computing was done by the mainframe and the dumb terminal was merely a device that allowed users to view results and enter information. In a big organization, dozens of dumb terminals could all be connected and working simultaneously with the mainframe. If the mainframe went down, everybody else went down too. The Flame is a dumb terminal connected by wireless to a huge processing complex called a cloud. Accordingly, the Flame does not need a complex operating system and much memory and therefore will be much cheaper than higher scale tablets like the iPad which are miniature computers. For some users the Flame will adequately meet their needs providing they are connected to the Amazon cloud. Devices like iPad can be used for some things without being connected to the Internet.Presumably, devices like the iPad offer better prospects for guarding the user's privacy than the dumb terminals like the Flame. There is another aspect where the Flame may have an advantage over the iPad. I have been frustrated with my iPad because of the poor service given by my Internet Service Provider. In general I think that wireless Internet connections are not as good for most surfing activities than a cable or DSL connection. My connection reminds me of the frustrating times I once experienced with a dial up connection. Users of Amazon's cloud service, on the other hand will benefit from it's super computer's ability to do all the heavy lifting and their devices will not need as much bandwidth as required by the upper scale tablets. Therefore I think that a Flame would operate quite satisfactorily on most crappy wireless services. |
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| heatseeker | Sep 30 2011, 05:56 AM Post #5 |
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Not available in Canada and they ain't saying when or if it might be. |
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| Delphi51 | Sep 30 2011, 04:42 PM Post #6 |
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Most interesting comments! It does seem to me that the dumb terminal will need more communication, not less. Also, Amazon will have even more control than Apple. Probably no reading books from other sources. I'm quite pleased with iPad's online speed. It certainly should not be limited by the home wireless, which is several times the speed of the DSL service. And it connects immediately unlike my wired desktop which has a 30 second delay after recovering from hibernation. No doubt the lack of Flash support speeds things up, too. The success of the Amazon pad may depend on how open it is to Android apps. I wonder if they will catch up to Apple's collection. I thought I might be able to write an iPad app but am finding the language very difficult. Made for youngsters working full time I guess. |
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| Reditall | Oct 1 2011, 02:40 AM Post #7 |
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Thanks for your comments. My responses are placed inline below your quoted comments.
I assume that by more communication you mean that more data will be exchanged for a specific result. According to the linked article, which describes how their browser, Silk, works their browser would appear to need less data exchange than other browsers. Silk Article Posted Image I agree with your comment about more control than Apple and no reading possibly with the exception of non DRM protected eBooks and documents like PDF or Word from other sources. Amazon will have to be careful about this. For example, I see this as being possibly a very good device for schools. Overly rigid proprietary filtering by Amazon would discourage use in schools.
My comments are probably unduly influenced by the sub standard service I am receiving from a greedy wireless provider who I suspect has oversold it's capacity in my area. The screen shot below which shows the results of 6 tests starting at mid afternoon yesterday at ending at 7 AM this morning suggests this. As you may see, results are all over the clock. During those times of the day when cell phone users are most active, my connection is hardly useable. My built in FTP software in iWeb refused to work around 8 PM and I kept getting not connected to the Internet messages. When your download speed is around .37 Mbps, there are a lot of time out errors. Look at the atrocious latency of 223 ms, which indicates pauses in transmission. This may or may not be related, Rogers is currently being scrutinized by the CRTC because of complaints that they are throttling. Posted Image
It is within Amazon's power to make it an Android friendly application by incorporating apps into their cloud. The big benefit for the user is that do not have to download apps, nor update them, nor worry about crapware getting on their devices. If Amazon slips up on security, they have to fix the problem. As I understand from glancing through manuals in Chapters, programming apps for these devices essentially involves selecting and threading together code modules. Consequently, programmers have to familiarize themselves with these modules so they can do a proficient assembly. Once the learning is over, app writing is probably quite easy and fast. Edited by Reditall, Oct 1 2011, 07:34 AM.
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| Reditall | Oct 1 2011, 02:46 AM Post #8 |
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I suspect that the reason for this restriction is legal issues with Canadian law. Amazon, a very aggressive marketing company would be unhappy with any restrictions on where their device may be sold, but probably have high priced lawyers to warm them of possible minefields. |
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| Delphi51 | Oct 2 2011, 10:22 AM Post #9 |
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i'm very skeptical of this dumb terminal business. Case in point, the schools here have a program for teachers to keep their marks that is dumb, requiring constant communication with its controller running on a server at central office. It works very slowly at the school and is absolutely unusable when teachers are at home - i'm told more than 30 seconds to enter a single mark. Now imagine students answering a question in a lesson, along with 200 other students in the school using the same wireless, routers, firewalls etc connecting to a server cloud in another country. How long will they wait for a response after typing their question? Compare this with software running locally where the answer and response doesn't have to travel at all. The ONLY reason for this cloud business is to give Amazon absolute control so they get paid for every use, and it is at the expense of convenience (can't do lesson on the school bus) and speed. Price is given as the reason for using it in schools. But what about the cost of using Amazon-only software? Anyway, net books are almost the same price. |
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| Reditall | Oct 3 2011, 12:46 AM Post #10 |
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Delphi i guess as they say the proof will be in the eating. If the performance is not on a par with competing devices it will fail. From the user's point of view there are advantages ... the installation and management of programs is done by Amazon and presumably they will be on a par with the other devices, the relatively lower cost of the device. The price places it in the impulse buying category for a lot of consumers. I suspect that connection costs will be lower too. With my old fashioned Kindle I can shop for books and do some rudimentary surfing at no charge. Finally for Windows users they will realize a new computing experience where they need not fret over the need for registry cleaning, defragging drives, constant security updates, and using anti virus and spy ware software.
Edited by Reditall, Oct 3 2011, 12:51 AM.
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| heatseeker | Oct 3 2011, 12:48 PM Post #11 |
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I'm quite pleased with iPad's online speed. What has surprised me a little about the iPad is how popular it is with the people 50 and over that I know. It's especially good for travel, because you can load almost limitless books and music, surf the net and email effortlessly AND pack it in a fairly tiny space. |
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| Delphi51 | Oct 3 2011, 02:05 PM Post #12 |
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Yes, it it sure is handy and not having to worry about all those windows problems is a huge plus all right. My only beef is on the educational programs running out of the cloud. I expect Amazon will make lots of money selling books for their pad. |
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| reactivate | Oct 4 2011, 11:26 AM Post #13 |
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This device is not really like a dumb terminal at all. A dumb terminal had no processing capability. If one had to draw a comparison, it is more like a "thin client". Client-server environments were and still are very popular where the client program and hardware has the local processing and storage capacity to do what can best be done locally while the server has the capacity and power to handle large databases and complex queries into same. In the case of the Fire, their browser is a two stage browser where the cloud will anticipate your needs by firing off multiple simultaneous requests for data in less time than a typical browser would take to decide what is needed to complete the page. Because of its massive 'experience' cloud can apply algorithms to anticipate what you are most likely to request next and have it preloaded into the Fire. Time will tell if it is as fast as Amazon anticipates but I expect it will outperform most other mobile device in normal use. I think the real success parameter will be the ease with which it integrates into the mix of other technologies in common use - smart phones of all flavours, desktop PCs, cameras, other tablets, along with software integration/compatibility. As many manufacturers can attest, a better mousetrap is only better if it 'fits' with the user's requirements. |
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| Reditall | Oct 4 2011, 12:51 PM Post #14 |
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Thanks for your comments. Since I understand that the Kindle Fire does not have an operating system, would you agree that it may be categorized as an "ultra thin client" as opposed to a "thin client?" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client |
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| reactivate | Oct 4 2011, 01:09 PM Post #15 |
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Since it has a dual core processor, I assume it must have at least a rudimentary OS in order to supervise the active processes. |
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9:54 PM Jul 11