Amazon has announced a whole raft of Kindle e-readers and tablets. But the interesting ones to me were the tablets. There are 3 of them, the Kindle Fire 8.9″ HD with 4G, the Kindle Fire 8.9″ HD, and the 7″ Kindle Fire HD. The bigger Kindle Fire HDs compete directly with the iPad while the smaller competes directly with the Google Nexus 7 and the much rumored iPad Mini. The battle of the big three is heating up even more. What’s interesting is that while Amazon started with books, Google with ads, and Apple with songs, pretty much all of them are now selling the same stuff: books, ads, songs, movies, etc. But Amazon has a huge leg up: shopping. Google and Apple would do well to get into that, maybe by buying eBay?
Google Nexus 7
Google has announced their much-anticipated own brand tablet. At $199 it competes squarely against the older Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and Amazon Kindle Fire. More importantly it moves closer towards the high-value price points set by the iPad. Way to go, Google!
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 | Amazon Kindle Fire | Google Nexus 7 | |
| Size | 193.7 x 122.4 x 10.5 mm | 190 x 120 x 11.4 mm | 198.5 x 120 x 10.5 mm |
| Weight | 344 g | 413 g | 340 g |
| Display | PLS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors | IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors | LED-backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| 1024 x 600 pixels. 7 inches | 1024 x 600 pixels, 7.0 inches | 1280 x 800 pixels, 7.0 inches | |
| Processor | Dual-core 1 GHz CPU, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP 4430 chipset | Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP 4430 chipset | Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor, 12-core ULP GeForce GPU, Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset |
| RAM | 1 GB RAM | 512 MB RAM | 1 GB RAM |
| Internal Storage | 8/16/32 GB storage | 8 GB storage | 8/16 GB storage |
| External Storage | Up to 64GB | No External Memory | No External Memory |
| Data | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n |
| Operating System | Android OS, v4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) | Amazon-customized Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread) | Android OS, v4.1 (Jelly Bean) |
| Primary Camera | 3.15 MP | none | 1.2 MP |
| Secondary Camera | VGA | none | none |
| Video | 1080p at 30fps | none | 720p at 30fps |
| Apps | Android Market + access to non-market apps | Amazon AppStore | Android Market + access to non-market apps |
| Battery | Standard battery, Li-Ion 4000 mAh | Standard battery, Li-Ion 4400 mAh | Standard battery, Li-Ion 4325 mAh |
| Battery Life | 8h | 8h | 8h |
Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich
Watched the YouTube live stream of the launching of the Samsung/Google Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich. The Galaxy Nexus has nice specs (1280×720 display!) though I’m not too hot on the form factor. I’ve never liked banana-shaped phones (Nokia 7110/8110 anyone?) nor humongous screens (which unfortunately is the trend). But Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) stole the limelight. Slick new UI, powerful new features (Face Unlock, Beam, folders, screenshots, etc.). Both the phone and ICS seem to have patent-issue avoidance in mind, e.g. the phone cannot be mistaken for any iDevice, the new folders don’t have the content-view of iOS.