Kindle Fire: Why Developers Love ItApple dominates the tablet market with iPad 2, but Amazon clearly made a dent with Kindle Fire. Released November 14 at $199 ($300 less than the base model iPad 2), the much smaller device lets users watch movies, listen to music, play games and read books downloaded from the company’s app store.
This calculated risk of selling the device at a loss has apparently paid off. It took less than a month for the Fire to become the second most popular tablet, beating fellow Android competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
Considering what shoppers receive for their dollar, it’s clear to see why.
“People are fired up about Fire because they know it's part of a service they already use and trust,” said Josh Tsui, president of Robomodo. “It becomes effortless to buy and use because it does not make them break their usual buying patterns. It enhances it.”
Such words go against Android-powered devices, often criticized for being fragmented. To Amazon’s credit, the company made sure to put a quality ecosystem in place, instead of relying on Google.
“In many ways, the best thing about Fire is that you barely feel it's an Android device,” said Igor Pusenjak, president of Lima Sky. “Amazon built its own closed-system OS on top of Android."
“The Kindle Fire doesn't address the fragmentation issue at all,” said Mike DeLaet, Glu Mobile’s vice president of sales and marketing. “That is something Google is addressing with Ice Cream Sandwich, by moving all form factors to a single operating system that is optimized for both tablets and smartphones.”
“It also helps,” DeLaet continued, “that Amazon had an established app store brand and billing system in place before the Kindle Fire was released, laying the groundwork for developers like Glu to take advantage of this new tablet.”
That said, while user friendliness is important, price has played a big role in the rise of the Fire.
“Not having to spend $500 for a tablet was a great place to start,” said Christian Arca, studio director at Toy Studio. “Amazon saw that void in the market it could fill. The company also knows its audience extraordinarily well, and learned from creating eReaders.”
Cost will definitely play an important role moving forward, particularly in poorer countries bitten by the technology bug.
"I wouldn’t be surprised if consumers end up owning a Fire and an iPad." -Christian Arca
“Price per unit of performance will drop every year as iOS and Android penetrate past 50 percent of consumers in developed nations,” remarked DeLaet. “Developing nations are just getting started, so lower price points will kick start adoption in 2012.”
Despite the low price, however, Kindle Fire hosts a variety of quality games that were ported with little effort, which is a rarity within the Android market. Chalk that up to Amazon’s developer friendly system.
“The Android Marketplace is like having 30 different pegs trying to fit into a square hole,” said Arca. “Some might be too loose, some might not fit at all. The Kindle Fire and the Fire Marketplace is like a square peg fitting into a square hole. It just fits.”
Tsui couldn’t agree more.
“From a developer’s point of view, it makes creating an experience much easier, as we don’t have to take into account every single piece of hardware that’s out there, which quickly dilutes how good a product can truly be.”
As Arca pointed out, game developers aren’t the only ones that benefit from such a user-friendly product.
“It's clear tablet manufacturers have learned that the key is the consumer experience. If the consumer feels like everything works, then it's successful. Amazon isn't the only one venturing off in that direction. Barnes & Noble did the same thing with the Nook Color and the Nook Tablet, one device powered by one app marketplace.”
That sounds a lot like Apple, but as we learned, most don’t feel Kindle Fire necessarily poses a serious threat to the iPad’s dominance.
“Kindle Fire and iPad 2 address different market segments and are complementary of each other rather than competitive,” said DeLaet.
“Amazon is going after a different audience with the Fire than Apple with the iPad, so I wouldn’t say it is entirely a threat,” said Arca. “Both devices can live harmoniously. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if consumers end up owning a Fire and an iPad. The Fire is smaller and cheaper. Plus, it is roughly the size of a book, so it feels more portable and reader friendly. The iPad is a device you think twice about before carrying with you wherever you go.”
It remains to be seen whether the public feels this way. That said, Apple can still learn a thing or two from Amazon.
“It would be great for there to be a 5” or 7” iPad,” said Tsui. “The form factor works really well, especially for traveling. I think if Apple came out with something in that size and similar price, it would do very well.”
With this in mind, we asked whether Amazon should quickly update the Fire to, let’s say, Fire 2. Getting on Apple’s yearly schedule of releases, however, may not be the best strategy, at least for the moment, developers indicated.
“Let people bang on it and extract as much as possible before the next version,” said Tsui. “In some ways, I hope it stays focused on its core strengths, and not try to be the end all be all tablet.”
Others, meanwhile, have a somewhat different view.
“Kindle Fire has great potential if Amazon improves its performance and irons out a few of the current bugs, which I'm sure they will,” added Pusenjak. “It's not exactly a prediction to say that Fire will become thinner, less expensive and more powerful over time.”
“The Fire is definitely taking shape as a bookshelf device,” said Arca. “It’s a great small tablet you can take anywhere that stores books, games, videos and other kinds of media people want readily available. In the future, I think it will start to transition from an eReader into an eMedia device.”
On that note, DeLaet feels that Amazon has a winner for years to come.
“This is a great example of how price point pressure from competitors such as the iPad 2 are driving adoption of new tablet and smartphone hardware. We can't wait for the Kindle Fire 2.”
“I love it for many of the same reasons that I love the iPad,” said Pusenjak. [The] user-interface is clean, makes sense and is easy to use. Purchases are a non-effort, since you already have an account on file with Amazon, and there's lots of content that's easy to get to. I truly hope we get the already rumored Fire 2 that's powerful enough and bug-free sooner rather than later.”
So do we. For now, we’re content to enjoy this relative newcomer to the hotly contested tablet space, and hope Amazon has even bigger things in store for 2012.
