If you are following my diary of learning to publish for Kindle, then you know that there are other places to epublish besides at Amazon.com. If you have also been following the tech news, you are aware that Kindle Fire sales have been falling off–quite a bit. Buyers are instead opting for the iPad 2 over the Fire and Nook. Why? The article says it’s because of the 10″ screen and the $299 price tag of the iPad 2. For starters, the lowest non-refurbished price I’ve seen for the iPad 2 is $399. Next, my suspicion is that iPad 2 is increasing in sales is because of what the Kindle Fire and Nook both lack–camera, microphone, and Bluetooth.
These three little add-ons may seem insignificant–and they actually are insignificant in terms of what it would cost the manufacturers to add them to the devices–make the iPad infinitely more versatile than the Fire. They allow for Skyping, sharing photos online, checking email–lots of things that can be done on a personal computer. To the Kindle, I would also add a mini-SD card slot (already on the Nook), another not terribly expensive item. Even if the Fire’s $199 price increased by $25 to $50, it would be worth having a super inexpensive handy computer that fits in a briefcase or handbag, and that adds only a pound or so to the weight of a child’s backpack.
But read on and decide for yourself.
Cheaper iPad 2 may be extinguishing Kindle Fire sales | ZDNet.
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And if you aren’t a regular to my blog site, you may be interested in my current project: learning how to publish to the Kindle (with no knowledge of PC computing code). After that, I’m going to try to conquer other e-publishing formats. (grin)
See you on the internet!
#iPad versus Kindle Fire
Write of Passage 
I’ve been thinking about picking up a Kindle Fire for a while now. They seem to be pretty decently specced – not a powerhouse, but decent for the price. Even though I’m an Apple guy, I just can’t see shelling out the $400 for what’s pretty much a huge iPod.
There are 2 Kindle Fires at our house, as well as an Android-based pad, 2 notebooks, and a desktop. I find I use the Fire more than I do the Transformer pad–it’s lighter, smaller, and just generally easier to tote around–even though the Transformer is no bigger than an iPad. I refuse to buy Apple products on a principle that goes back several decades, despite the popularity of the devices. The Kindle is reasonably serviceable as an Android-based pad, but it lacks those things I mentioned–especially the mini-SD slot. There’s no where to store except the Amazon Cloud, and I think I’m too old to adjust to cloud computing!