Amazon Unveils Tablet That Undercuts iPad’s Price

Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, introduced the Kindle Fire on Wednesday.

By JENNA WORTHAM

Published: September 28, 2011

 re-post from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/technology/amazon-unveils-tablet-that-undercuts-ipads-price.html?_r=1

Seeking to stake a claim in the tablet computer market alongside Apple and Samsung, Amazon.com on Wednesday revealed plans to begin selling a color touchscreen tablet.

Named the Kindle Fire, the device has a 7-inch touchscreen, weighs 14.6 ounces and is outfitted with a dual-core processor. But the most important feature may be the price. At $199 the Fire is less than half the price of the Apple iPad, which starts at $499. It is the first tablet from a major company to seriously undercut the iPad in price.

Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, who showed off the Fire on stage at a news conference in Manhattan, said it was meant to build on the popularity of the company’s e-readers and appeal to a broader audience that also wants to browse the Web and stream music, movies and video. The device has access to Amazon’s library of 18 million e-books, songs and movies and television shows, and can run Android applications that have been approved by Amazon.

There is also a newsstand for users who want to subscribe to magazines, with titles like Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, Wired and Glamour.

“We’re building premium products at non-premium prices,” said Mr. Bezos. “We are determined to do that.”
Mr. Bezos also introduced a speedy custom-built mobile browser, called Amazon Silk, which he said was “cloud-accelerated,” combining Amazon’s computing cloud with the Kindle Fire device. “It’s truly a technical achievement,” he said.

Amazon plans to begin taking preorders for the Fire on its Web site immediately, and they will start shipping Nov. 15. Mr. Bezos said the company was “making many millions of these.”

The Kindle Fire includes a free cloud-based storage system, meaning that no syncing with cables is necessary. Mr. Bezos seemed to take a swipe at Apple, saying, “That model that you are responsible for backing up your own content is a broken model.”

Like the iPad’s screen, the screen on the Fire has so-called in-plane switching technology, meaning that unlike some LCD screens it can be viewed from a variety of angles, not just straight on.

Mr. Bezos also introduced several new e-readers, including the Kindle Touch, a lightweight version of its current Kindle models, with the addition of infrared touch features to the black-and-white display. The Touch, which costs $99, has no buttons, and users navigate by tapping the sides of the screen. The device is available for preorder beginning Wednesday and will start shipping Nov. 21. Mr. Bezos showed off a version of the Kindle Touch with 3G wireless connectivity, for $149.

In addition, Mr. Bezos showed off a new, non-touchscreen Kindle that he said was 18 percent lighter than the Kindle 3, includes a faster processor and will sell for $79. It will begin shipping immediately, he said.
“We have many customers who tell us they don’t want touch,“ Mr. Bezos said. “We’re going to sell many millions of these.”

The Kindle Fire has its work cut out for it. Apple has secured a strong lead in tablets, selling more than 29 million iPads in the product’s first 15 months on the market. Its competitors have been less successful. For example, Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry line of smartphones, said it only shipped 200,000 of its own rival to the iPad, the PlayBook, in three months.

Amazon will also be competing with the Nook, Barnes & Noble’s popular color e-reader. Many expect the Nook to get an upgrade later this year.

However, Amazon has an ace up its sleeve that other tablet makers do not, in that the Kindle Fire will offer Amazon’s full spread of digital content, said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst with Gartner who follows the consumer electronics industry.

“Amazon has already nailed the hardest part of the equation: the content,” he said.

Early sales estimates for the Kindle Fire reach as high as five million.

“The tablet market right now is easily defined as Apple and everyone else,” said Mr. Gartenberg. “There is certainly room for another player, and a well-executed device from Amazon could do well.”

E-books push deeper into interactive territory

The big buzz around e-books are devices, like Amazon's upcoming tablet, and apps such as Booktrack that take interacting with stories to a new level.

September 18, 2011By Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times

If there's already a tablet in your house — an iPad or an Android-driven one — then this fall, e-books will be all about interactivity. If you don't have a tablet yet, keep your eye on Amazon.

Industry watchers have been predicting that Amazon will introduce a tablet later this year — if so, it stands to be a big hit. In August, the technology and market analysis firmForrester Research said that Amazon could sell between 3 million and 5 million tablets in the last quarter of this year, if the company prices the (not-yet-announced) device at $300 or less.

Amazon proved it could transform the publishing landscape by introducing its Kindle e-reader in November 2007. Before that, e-books were an oddity, and e-readers strange, unloved creatures. After Amazon put the Kindle in front of book buyers, everything changed; readers embraced the device. Last summer, the online bookseller saw e-book sales overtake its print book sales. During the first half of this year, Random House, the world's biggest publisher, saw more than 20% of its U.S. revenue come from e-books.

Now there are many e-readers on which to consume those e-books: Barnes & Noble's Nook, the Kobo, the long-standingSony e-Reader and a multitude of others. Most compete with Amazon's Kindle; a tablet from Amazon would be designed to compete with Apple's iPad.

The iPad can function as an e-reader — it has the native iBooks application — but its real appeal, book-wise, has been in apps. Other tablets, many of which run on the Android operating system, can run apps too, but Apple got a head start. Since the iPad's debut in April 2010, it's been a Wild West of app development, with companies small and large creating apps that allow books to move and more.

One of those lets you create an animated children's e-book starring your own son or daughter. JibJab Media, the onlineanimation house with its roots in political satire, launched JibJab Jr. on Sept. 1 with a free e-book, "The Biggest Pizza Ever." After two simple steps — selecting a gender and adding your child's photo — the story commences with your child's face included in the page-by-page animation. Future books coming out this fall are about the alphabet and the ocean, and these cost $3.99 for an individual version or $7.99 to customize for more than one child.

Some apps debuting this fall are far out. Take Booktrack, whose announcement party in New York featured models in neon-pink wigs demonstrating enhanced e-books to Salman Rushdie, filmmaker Paul Haggis and James Frey. Enhanced with what? Music and a soundtrack. The app tracks along at your reading speed, so when a door closes in a Sherlock Holmes story, there's a slam, and when things get scary in "Hansel and Gretel," the music swells. The chief investor in Booktrack is Peter Thiel, chief executive of Paypal; and Sony Music is a partner. Upcoming Booktracks, which cost a few dollars more than their non-enhanced counterparts, include short stories by Rushdie and Jay McInerney.

Publishers are still trying to figure out how to best make e-books people want. You might buy one that comes with a video interview from the author, or a code to scan with your smartphone to access online extras, or find that Lee Child and Stephen King have short stories available only as e-books. Random House has partnered with Politico to publish real-time e-book coverage of the 2012 presidential election, with the first releases planned for this fall. Also look for an e-book from David Sedaris and the e-book version of previously unreleased interviews withJacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Despite all the buzz about devices, the Internet hasn't gone away: It remains a destination. One quiet project, Small Demons, won't be unveiled until October but it promises to mix books and online in new, innovative ways. And online is the focus of the high-profile Pottermore, J.K. Rowling's official interactive website for all things Harry Potter. It will open up for public access in October; reviews from users who've had early access have been strong. So far, the Harry Potter series has not been released as e-books but with any luck, Rowling will have that set up before the holidays.