Fire Under Fire

So now that the Kindle Fire has sold at the rate of more than a million devices a week, the inevitable backlash has begun. Apparently, there are security issues with the reader-tablet that has Amazon promising a software update that will patch them. Also, some early adapters are not pleased with an interface they call clunky and the device's lack of iPad-like controls like volume buttons.

This might be a case of inflated expectations for what is, after all, a $200 device.


When the Fire was first introduced, many were calling it the iPad killer, a device that would deliver everything that Apple's did at a fraction of the price. There was just one problem – the iPad was designed to be a full tablet computer, and the Kindle Fire an E-reader with a few extras.

The Fire is a multimedia device that delivers the Amazon Prime service, to be sure (and it offers one thing the iPad can't – true Flash). But when it comes right down to it, it's designed to be something that you read books on, and then maybe browse the web a little or play a bit of Angry Birds between chapters.

It's not something you can organize your life on, because it wasn't meant to be that. It's just a very simple, very basic cloud device and Android tablet.

The backlash isn't hurting the sales, of course. And the Kindle Fire is fulfilling expectations on another front – that it would be The Only Android Tablet That Matters this holiday season. Sales of other tablets are still just plodding along - until someone announces a fire sale, and then they fly off the shelves. It seems consumers still aren't going for non-Apple tablets unless they met the Fire's price point.

So what does this say to everyone? When marketing your product, make sure that the public knows exactly what they're getting. Raise expectations for it, to be sure – but make sure those expectations aren't unrealistic. Otherwise, you're just going to end up with a backlash, and a lot of people who aren't going to give the next generation of your product a chance.

And if you own both a Fire and an iPad, you'll probably want to use one for reading and a little light browsing and the other for everything else. Because reading is, after all, the Fire's primary use. Expecting anything else from it is like expecting a Volkswagon Beetle to be a race car. – Bonnie Walling

 

  • Scott D

    I think people are expecting PC-like behavior from a device that wasn’t intended to be one. Tablets range from the Playbook and the iPad, both designed to be competitive with laptops, to the Fire, which is a beefed up e-reader. There may be a need to qualify tablet types in the near future.

  • http://www.stevensavage.com/ Steven Savage

    I’ve said for months the Fire is going to be the Wii of Tablets. Everyone owns one, not everyone uses it as their primary. That’s how it’s designed.