The much heralded Amazon Android-based tablet, the Kindle Fire, has now been released and much was made in its pre-release state on how it was going to be the next iPad
killer, titles previously held by the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Now that the device has seen the light of day, is it the new contender that will dethrone the king? No, not really. It is missing a number of capabilities found in the higher-end tablets (iPad, Xoom, Galaxy Tab) such as the internal sensors (such as location), front-facing cameras for video conferencing and superior video/web browsing due to a tablet’s larger screen. However, I would disagree with those news pundits who compare the Kindle Fire with the Barnes & Noble Nook color. The reason is that the Kindle Fire offers a compelling device that now sits in a tier between the full-featured tablets (Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1) and smartphones.
If I am a program manager looking to deploy a sales force automation application to a particular mobile device, the Kindle Fire offers the following:
Lightweight – 14.6 ounces versus 1.35 lbs for iPad and 1.25 lbs for the Galaxy
Screen Size – Large enough at 1024 x 600 to make large screen-based apps feasible
Price – Amazon is selling this device for $199 or $300 cheaper than the cheapest iPad model or $200 cheaper than the cheapest Android tablets, the Asus Transformer or Acer Iconia
Right now, the Kindle Fire uses a form of Android 2.3, with an Amazon-specific interface. It is unknown how standard Android apps will work on the Fire or what the upgrade path is for the Android OS with the pending release of Android “Ice Cream Sandwich”. In addition, one issue that may limit suitability is that the Kindle Fire is WiFi-only, no wireless carrier option. A mobile salesperson may not be able to always find an open WiFi hotspot and it would be critical to be able to fall back on a 3G/4G carrier signal. However, the combination of the Fire’s reasonable price point and support for the Android OS makes the Fire an enticing option for a corporate mobile device initiative rolling a large number of devices to their distributed work force.
