A well written article without too much mantra like claptrap.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/te...ref=technology

The only likely error is suggesting Amazon lose on the price.
If easily rooted it may also be made into a proper computer.
I guess that is the same for the iPad.

I really can't wait for this to come out in the UK. I will Definitley buy one. I'll use my kindle for reading and the tablet in the same way I use my iPhone now. Depending on how good the app store is, the ease of use and availability of video content it could make my iPhone redundant. Not only is it cheaper than an iPad but the size is just right. The iPad was always too big for me and I never saw the point in carrying something like that around when I could easily take my netbook which weighs about the same and does more. Also to me it was lIke having an oversized iPhone.

Certainly, Amazon are challenging the currently established market model, where you pay loads for a tablet, then more per month for 3G. Especially challenging to Apple's (high) pricing structure .......

The Fire's small yearly charge for video streaming does seem very good value. On the other hand, all these new Kindles have a virtual keyboard, - making them cheaper - but I prefer a mechanical one for typing .........

Have you seen the cost of Amazon Prime?

They have their own strange prices too.

Not just Apple. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the new Sony tablet cost the same as the iPad 2. The Xoom and the PlayBook originally cost the same as the iPad 2, until poor sales of each caused a price cut.

The tablet market seems the one area where an Apple product isn't stupidly over priced compared to similarly specced alternatives.

Good value but what does it offer that you can't get from the budget tablets in say Maplin?

If you want a good tablet really the Zoom, Tab and Ipad are the only decent models worth getting.

That is just a list of overpriced tablets'.

The transformer features very high up.

You get what you pay for going for a budget tablet.

It's good to make the technology widely available but I'm no fan of 7" tablets when you have phones like Samsung Galaxy with about a 4"2 inch touch screen.

If the tablet market is to work the middle market cheap 7" models offer nothing better than a half decent smart phone.

Any words on when this will be released in the UK?

Some time next year, but I don't think there's a date yet. Amazon needs to sort out its services in the UK before it can launch the Fire here.

So it'll probably in the 2nd quarter at the earliest then as I'll doubt Amazon will launch right after xmas as everyone will be broke in Jan/Feb

Seems a suitable place to bung the Archos 80 G9 video. Includes both an intro and an unboxing video below it.
I have to quite agree with the 'you can't have a tablet without a kickstand'.
The 3G USB slot looks cool too.

http://www.slashgear.com/archos-80-g...ideo-23182477/
About price as the fire at the 80's current £200.

I didn't really understand the comment in the NY Times article about Amazon losing money on this tablet.

"With the Fire, every dollar Amazon loses on the device could be more than made up for by the data gained. The Silk browser, by virtue of being situated in the cloud, will record every Web page that users visit. That has implications for privacy and commerce."

Why would they be losing money on it? The spec is fairly bleh. I'm sure I'll end up buying one, but that's because I'm addicted to Amazon. After that Black Friday sale they had last year I had to dodge the delivery guy for a month afterwards.

Oh, re: pricing - the new $79 Kindle is £89 in the UK - I think that's a more likely price conversion, or probably a simple $199 to £199 as it's aimed squarely at early adopters for whom money isn't such an issue. They don't really have the streaming market penetration in the UK that they do in the states. For most people on capped broadband accounts streaming movies is going to to result in a T&C letter from your ISP.

Not quite...

The $79 Kindle in the USA is the one with advertising. If you look at the same model but sold without advertising it is $109, which at today's exchange rate works out at £70.83 in Sterling.

I am watching here carefully for a release date because my partner really wants a kindlefire. A tidy new board totally related to the kindle fire http://www.kindlefireforum.co.uk for UK'ers

No gorilla glass or ips screen would put me off that instantly as they are a tablets most important features.

the kindle fire looks awesome

Ive got the kindle 3 with free 3g
so I can surf the net for free any time of day.

cant see any mention of free 3g with the kindle fire
go here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846

I just hope the Kindlefire will be released in the UK and before xmas. I am looking forward to the silk browser technology to see just how fast it is. I think that this browser development is intergrated to compensate for the lack of 3G.

Rumoured to be next year I'm afraid. I read somewhere that the Fire released in the US is kind of an interim version pushed out to meet a deadline, and the version they really wanted to ship won't be ready until early 2012, and that one will go global. Not sure how true that is though.

The 3G on Kindles is for free, that would not be possible on a device with an intensive data transfer, so at the moment they do not offer it for the Kindle fire, IMO.

Can someone tell me what I am missing on my phone without gorilla glass?
Its been dropped a few times and am certain it may have had a smashing time if the screen was composed of gorilla glass.

One would have thought kick stand and connectivity are way up near the top.
The most vital is missing from them all. That being a solid flip cover.

Maybe early next year is the time Amazon is looking for a global release yes. I also think that the 7 inch version of the kindle fire is possibly 'testing' ground for the full 10 inch version after reading the buzz on the web.

that 7" kindle looks fab... add to that the silk downloading ... add to that colour !
( if only it was free 3 g too ! )

but down the road a 10" version will be phenomenal !

Make sure you've got something else on your Xmas list, it's 99% certain that it won't be out in the UK this year. There would be little point. Amazon don't have all of the additional content stores in place for the UK to make this appealing. They have books, but Apps for Android, and Movies/TV Shows aren't part of their UK store yet. Those need to be in place for when the device launches.

The browser technology is there so they can see everything you're searching the web for and market products to you appropriately!