Kindle Fire: Three pros, five cons

The good: Form factor and content. The bad: Lock in, auto updates and the Silk browser.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog (“Kindle Fire Lessons Learned“). It’s republished with permission.

I don’t regret spending the $200 I paid Amazon for my Kindle Fire. I tried it out and decided it wasn’t for me, so I gave it to my daughter instead. Even though I no longer use the Fire I wanted to share the things I learned about the device and myself over the past several weeks. Let’s start off with the good side of things.

Kindle Fire pros

Kindle FireForm factor — I prefer the Fire’s size to the iPad’s. It’s nice being able to wrap your hand around the entire device and the lighter weight is a big plus for the Fire. Of course, it’s the same form factor as RIM’s PlayBook, and given how poorly that device has performed it’s clear you need more than just a great form factor.

Meets the needs of typical consumer — The Fire wasn’t for me but my daughter really likes it. That’s why you see so many good and bad reviews of it. Consumers who want a cheap tablet are OK without all the bells and whistles of the iPad, for example. Early adopters, or those who want to push the technology to the limit, are disappointed though. More on the early adopter in a moment …

Connection to Amazon content — There’s no question Amazon is using the razors and blades economic model here and the Fire is clearly the razor they’re willing to sell at little to no profit. Connectivity to Amazon’s ebooks, video and audio content is second to none with the Fire. And tying in the Prime membership program will only lead to more Amazon products being sold.

That’s it as far as pluses go. Now let’s talk about the minuses.

Kindle Fire cons

Connection to Amazon content — As easy as it is for Fire users to access Amazon content it’s just that difficult to access anyone else’s. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Fire it’s that my next tablet will not be locked in to one provider’s content. That probably means I won’t be buying from the typical content providers, of course. I don’t mind paying more for that capability, by the way. So if Samsung comes up with a terrific tablet that meets all my needs, and it’s $100 or so more than the Fire, I’m in.

Awful for the early adopter/tinkerer — As noted above, the Fire is pretty good for the typical consumer. But if you’re buying it to root and open it up you’ll be disappointed. Even if you go through the rooting process you’ll quickly find some of the apps in the Android Market simply won’t run on it (e.g., NHL Gamecenter App, the swipe keyboard, etc.) And if you do root it, watch out for those unsolicited auto-updates.

Auto updates — This one’s ridiculous. How in the world can Amazon think that forcing OS updates on every Fire owner is the right thing to do? Amazon, take a page out of the Apple book and let your customers decide when and if they want the update. I couldn’t help but feel the auto update was intended more to penalize rooters than to fix problems and offer more functionality. It also reminded me of the unfortunate “1984” debacle Amazon brought upon themselves a few years ago. Really stupid.

“Silk” browser — This has to be the biggest embarrassment of all for Amazon. Remember how excited Bezos was when he demo’d the Fire’s lightning-fast browser at the press event last year? It turns out the browser isn’t that fast after all. In fact, in my totally unscientific side-by-side testing, the Fire almost always loaded pages slower than both my iPad and my RIM PlayBook. Even with all these other issues I figured the Fire would offer a browsing experience that’s second to none. The results were considerably weaker than promised. I’m disappointed that Amazon hasn’t come out and admitted their failure here. It’s remarkable that they still prominently feature the Silk browser on the Fire’s product page. They seem to be in denial about it as they haven’t even hinted it will be fixed in a future software update. As much as I criticize Apple, this is something Steve Jobs never would have let happen.

Missing a “killer” app — This is the reason why I had to keep my iPad handy throughout my Fire use and am stuck (for the time being) on iOS. Zite is my go-to app. I use it every single day. It’s outstanding. It’s a free app but I’d gladly pay as much as $10 or $15 for it, especially now that I’m totally addicted to it. There’s no Android version of Zite … yet. I can’t even consider another Android tablet until Zite is available. Flipboard is a close second and it too doesn’t exist in the Android world. Amazon should have invested some money with the developers of apps like Zite and Flipboard to make sure they were available when the Fire launched. Better yet, wouldn’t it be nice if a Fire-specific app or two came out that made the device irresistible? I’d love to be talking about a Fire or Android app that’s unbeatable but not available on iOS. I can’t think of a single one.


I realize I’m a fairly unique user and that plenty of Fire owners are perfectly happy with their purchase. That’s great, but I’d also love to see Amazon step up, act like the market leader they’re trying to be and address these shortcomings.

I’m convinced that my next tablet will be an Android-based one. The only Android tablet I’ll consider though is one that gives me access to all types of content, not just content from the company who sells the hardware. Heck, as closed as they are, even Apple lets you install e-reader apps from Amazon, B&N, etc. One of the reasons they can do that is they’re confident they’ve got a terrific piece of hardware and you’ll want to buy it over the competition. They also charge a premium for it. I’ve learned it’s worth paying a premium, as long as it’s not ridiculously high, for the ability to choose from multiple content providers.

So while my next tablet won’t be the cheapest on the market, I won’t make the same mistake twice and limit myself to one source of content for it.

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