The Anti-Tablet Tablet Which Is No Tablet

So here we have it, the Amazon Kindle Fire. You can find details on your favorite tech blog, I won’t copy those things here.

Way more interesting are the debates surfacing whether it is tablet or not (or a second tablet), whether it is an iPad killer, just a killer (product) or non of the previous.

The best non-spec-list-driven article so far belongs to Shawn Blanc. Go read it!

Many smart people say it was a brilliant move by Amazon not to market the Kindle Fire as a tablet or a (direct) iPad competitor. Take a look at the page at amazon.com: the marketing copy has not a single mention of the word tablet. One is in the “Included in the Box” line of the specs, the other is a user generated keyword. That’s it! Oh and iPad gets mentioned exactly one time: “Kindle Fire uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology - similar technology to that used on the iPad”.

Why is it a smart move? While the tech nerds here and there will go wild to compare the Kindle Fire with the iPad, the average customer is already conditioned by Amazon to not compare the two devices. Hence, customers will hardly ever ask the question “iPad or Kindle Fire?”. The iPad is placed as a rather serious device that can replace your regular computer. The Kindle Fire, due to its price and size, is a gadget, something you have additionally to your regular computer. Therefore it will fall short in any comparison, as you’ll compare apples and oranges.

At this price point, if an Apple-branded device might suffer this holiday season, it is more likely to be the iPod Touch and not the iPad.

UPDATE: Another great article by The Loop, and thankfully (yes, I take pride in such things) they draw similar conclusions.