“The Kindle Fire is the Fruitcake of Tablet Devices”

I posted back in November about my struggle with the Kindle Fire.  It’s lack of proxy support and the inability of the device to reach the general Android App store (you’re chained to the Amazon App store).  I finally gave up and switched to an iPad.  Apparently I’m not alone.

Amazon Tablet Share Fell to Just Over 4% 1Q Vs 16.8% in 4Q: IDC

People buy the thing for others but not for themselves.  And that’s not a plan for success.

The Fire is an incomplete device built on an incomplete operating system.  It simply was not ready for prime time.  Mine is collecting dust next to my bedside table.

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6 thoughts on ““The Kindle Fire is the Fruitcake of Tablet Devices”

  1. Huh. I love mine, and we just bought a second one. I found it very intuitive — including how to access and sideload non-Amazon apps. For a couple of questions, I got great and immediate service from Amazon, and for other fun with the Fire, I found forums with other users who swap all sorts of tips (as well as free books, free apps, etc., in addition to borrowing library books from the Wisconsin elibrary consortium).

    And I got my first one after a few weeks with a borrowed IPad. It’s just too large for my hands (I’m female; I do know that many men I know don’t have this difficulty). And for the price difference, I went with the Fire.

    It’s all a brave new world, isn’t it? But great for everyday use and traveling, too — far better than an extra suitcase filled with books and with extra baggage fees! whether IPad, Fire, other Kindles, Nooks, etc. I think that we early adopters are going to see a lot of this standardize in coming years. And I think that Amazon and its Kindles will survive. 🙂 (Other industry reports this week are far more upbeat than the one that you cite . . . although the B&N deal with Microsoft just done is going to affect the market again, as Microsoft always does.)

    Anyway: If ever you want to dust off that brick on your bedside table and activate it again, perhaps we can go offline for me to share info and forums and such that I have found that have given me fun with the Fire. Or I can just post some url’s here.

    1. Well, I got it when it first came out, tried it through the holidays but found it, in the end, lacking in good apps and in support for the network at my office. The version of Android they chose does not support proxy servers making it a brick at my office. But my iPad is fully connected wherever I take it…

      I’m glad you find the device useful. You want to buy another one? 🙂

  2. Darn, wish I hadn’t just ordered another!

    Btw, apps for the Fire have exploded, and there are more than ten thousand as of a few weeks ago. And again, sideloading accesses many others. And many are interaccessing with my PCs at home and office just fine, perhaps after lots of app upgrades, too. Just so’s you know, if you hand it off to someone else in your family or something.

    (And do be sure to get the great recent updates for the Fire itself — and the updated manual; the former ought to occur by turning it on and accessing WiFi, and/or both are online with a couple of clicks, too.)

  3. I got a Kindle Fire as a Christmas present for someone in my family, and they are still using the device daily. It seems like a good cheaper alternative to some of the other tablet devices currently on the market. If I had a need for a tablet, I would consider getting a Kindle Fire over one of the generic Android tablets in the same price range.

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