Kindle Fire just a flash in the pan?

Anyone think the whole tablet thing is a phase and we are going to look back some years from now and think "that's how we used to do things back then". Sort of like how we look back at Mad Men with their typewriters and rotary phones.

 

But my point is that Amazon, unlike Apple, has distribution avenues other than through its own product. You can use your iPad to go buy something on Amazon. You can use your Samsung Galaxy to go buy something on Amazon. Whatever they are selling, they are selling on platforms besides their own, which is unlike Apple.

I just am not sure how much they even need to have their own tablet.

 

I'll be very curious what the next big thing will be.

How many people still own a desktop computer? I'm guessing the number is low. I haven't had one for nine years. I'd be curious what the tablet sales have done to laptop sales. I know I use my personal laptop pretty rarely now that I have the Kindle.

 

The Kindle Fire and the iPad are both imperfect e-readers because they lack e-ink displays. Clearly that doesn't bother some people, but it would bother me a great deal, so a Kindle app on an iPad won't do it for me. (I have one friend who reads books on his iPhone. Simply the thought of that makes my head hurt.)

And I also love that it's uber portable, far more so than an iPad and even than a Fire. I can slip it in the back pocket of my jeans and you can't see it. Since opening it Christmas morning, the list of times in my life when it wasn't accessible by at least a short walk is very, very short.

Also, I love the battery life. I've never run it down so far that I had to make a point to charge it. I update books and whatnot once a month or so and that's enough to keep it going.

As for what's next, sounds like Amazon is close to rolling out an e-ink color display. I think that will be huge. The front lighting option for Nooks is also huge, and it sounds like Amazon is close to releasing that, as well. I don't know if you can ever get eink to refresh like an LCD, thus have an eink tablet, but that may be the next big thing. What, for instance, magazines can do on an iPad or Fire is awesome, but I feel those devices only a stop to a more lasting solution that will really replace print products.

 

My fiancee has a Kindle Fire and contributed to the Q4 numbers and she loves it. I was skeptical about it, but it's actually a really good device, especially if you're not using it to replace a laptop like iPads are trying to do. The new iPad HDs certainly aren't going to help the Kindle's numbers, but a lot of my Apple friends are getting tired of the company making it's brand new products outdated within a year. Every year, a new iPhone or iPad. Even some trust fund hipsters might have trouble keeping up.

 

But you just paid $289 for that Kindle if you have Prime.

There is a reason why cable companies give you the receiver for free or the dish for free, it's the subscription they want you to buy. And what everyone is starting to become is more dependent on Amazon. Even if they lose a few bucks on the Kindle, you are making Amazon your primary place to purchase online goods.

 

Every piece of technology we have today is a phase.

 

I'd be curious how many people got Prime. The people I know who got it, did it for the free shipping, not the digital media. If you buy gifts online, you can get to $79 in shipping fees pretty damn quickly, so if you use Amazon a lot for stuff like that, it's a great deal...