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Kindle Fire HD 8.9 vs. the iPad 3

On paper, the new Amazon Kindle Fire Hard disk 8.9 blows the iPad three out of the water. The Fire HD is thinner, lighter, and smaller than the iPad 3. The Fire HD has dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus, while the iPad has a single mono speaker. Where the iPad three is capable of 22Mbps 802.11n WiFi, the Burn down Hd has a MIMO antenna capable of 31Mbps.

Merely most importantly, the 16GB Fire HD — with its 1920×1200 (254 PPI) Retina-equivalent screen! — is a full 200 dollars cheaper than the 16GB iPad three. If you lot step up to the 32GB models, or the 4G LTE models, the price difference jumps to $230.

At present, for a start, this price disparity gives yous some idea of Apple tree'southward ludicrous turn a profit margins, but information technology likewise illustrates the very unlike tack that Amazon is taking. The 16GB WiFi iPad 3, at launch, cost roughly $300 to build. Given its slightly cheaper materials (plastic chassis rather than aluminium) and Amazon'southward weaker supply chain, the 16GB Kindle Burn down Hard disk 8.9 probably costs effectually $300 as well.

iPad 3 (or iPad 2S, depending on your point of view)Instead of making a huge turn a profit on every device, Amazon instead opts to sell its tablets at cost price, relying on aftermarket purchases (Prime number, movies, east-books, music, Television receiver shows) to plow a profit. For this technique to work, Amazon has to sell a lot of tablets — but considering the get-go-generation Kindle Fire sold somewhere in the region of 6 million units in its first ix months in the U.s., comfortably outselling every tablet except for the iPad, I don't think Amazon will have a problem moving units.

The original Kindle Fire didn't become up against the iPad, though — it was a cheap, chunky, 7-inch device that stood alone until the Nexus 7 appeared a few months ago. Information technology was the perfect Christmas present, or the platonic purchase for someone who was thinking virtually getting a tablet, merely didn't want to plunk downward $500 for an iPad or Milky way Tab.

The Burn down Hd, with an impressive screen, fancy speakers, and svelte form cistron, is obviously targeted straight at the iPad (and indeed, both Jeff Bezos' presentation and the Amazon.com product page for the Fire Hd draw comparisons with the iPad 3). The question is, does the Kindle Fire Hard disk 8.ix have what it takes?

Amazon Kindle Burn HD viii.ix vs. Apple iPad 3
Kindle Fire HD 8.9 iPad 3
Toll (WiFi, 16GB) $299 $499
Toll (4G LTE, 32GB) $499 $729
4G data program $fifty/year $200/year
Screen size (inches) 8.9 9.7
Screen resolution 1920×1200 2048×1536
RAM 1GB 1GB
Thickness 8.8mm ix.4mm
Weight 575g 652g
Bone Android 4.0 (modified) iOS v.ane
Processor Dual-core OMAP4470 @ 1.5GHz Dual-core A5X @ 1GHz
Wireless connectivity MIMO Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth WiFi (802.11/a/b/1000/north), Bluetooth
Camera "HD" front-facing camera 8MP rear, VGA front-facing
Video N/A 1080p (rear)
Speakers Dual stereo speakers (with Dolby Digital Plus) Unmarried mono speaker
Battery Unknown (probably 8 hours) 10 hours

In terms of hardware, the iPad does have a marginally larger and higher-resolution screen — simply early reports suggest the Fire HD might have a better screen, in terms of dissimilarity, glare, and so on. The iPad 3's A5X system-on-a-chip (SoC) is comparable to the Fire HD's Texas Instruments OMAP4470, with the iPad 3 perhaps having a slight edge on graphics performance. Curiously, there's no rear-facing photographic camera on the Fire HD. In exchange, though, the Fire HD has meliorate sound and wireless connectivity.

Kindle Fire HD interface (modified Android ICS)On the software side of things, the Burn down Hard disk is running a customized version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and the iPad runs iOS v.1 (soon to be upgraded to iOS half dozen). There'due south no denying that iOS has access to more apps (500,000 vs. tens of thousands in the Amazon Appstore), just the Burn HD has admission to about of the vital apps, including Skype, Netflix, HBO Go, and of course Aroused Birds. When it comes to other kinds of content, though, like movies and Tv shows, Amazon is best in class.

Nosotros can compare hardware and software specs until the cows come up home, but ultimately it boils down to this: Is the $200 price difference big plenty to sway would-exist buyers away from the iPad? Really, when we boil it all downward, the principal thing the iPad has going for it is the Apple Experience — and is that worth $200?

For existing tablet owners (well-nigh of which are iPad owners), it's hard to say; they've already bought into the app ecosystem, filled up their iCloud, and sipped the Jobsian Kool-Assist. It would cost a lot more than $200 to make me switch from Windows to Mac or Android to iOS.

For new customers, though — and remember, the vast majority of consumers are get-go-fourth dimension tablet buyers — saving $200 is a huge deal. For $200 you could buy ii years of Netflix, or you could purchase Little Timmy his ain 7-inch Kindle Fire Hard disk.

One happy Amazon CEO: Jeff Bezos with the new Kindle FiresRetrieve, while the tablet market is growing very quickly, no one knows how it will turn out. Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft all have very different visions, but at the moment all they can exercise is concenter as many customers as possible — and then see how this tablet thing shakes out. Amazon knows that tablets could be the next all-time affair, and if information technology takes a $300 at-cost tablet to tie users into the Amazon Experience, that's a pocket-size toll to pay. It seems Google and Microsoft will both accept similar approaches, too, selling tablet hardware at very close to cost price and hoping that their ecosystem volition be the one that wins out.

It will be very, very interesting to see how Apple tree reacts to the Kindle Fire Hd viii.9 and other inexpensive tablets. Historically, Apple has been happy with a depression market share and loftier profit margins — but with the iPad, Apple has monopolized an entire, very lucrative market segment. You tin't run into the Cupertino company ceding command without a fight — only just similar Android smartphones and Windows PCs, there is no way that Apple will continue to competitively attract new customers unless it competes on price.

Read: A closer look at the apps and features of Amazon'southward Kindle Fire Hd software