Everything technology has to begin with an imagination, the imagination of what the future may hold. It’s this imagination that has been the motive for most of the scientific development. The tablet that we see today had been imagined many many years ago. The First evidence of tablet computers can be in the fiction works of second half of 20th century. For instance, Isaac Asimov described a calculator pad in the novel Foundation.
With such a picture in mind GRiD Systems released the first commercially successful tablet type computer. It was called the GRiDPad. This was the story of 1992. Although the device couldn’t meet a lot of commercial success but it surely paved the way for future tablet technologies.
With Amazon Kindle technical service unveiling its much awaited Kindle Fire tablet computer in 2011, we may finally have a real tablet war with us. In the nearly two years from the time iPad went on sale, many tablet like devices from many companies have come and gone. But Apple’s iPad has remained dominant.
Kindle technical help service introduced a new entry, though it may be something different. Instead of producing an iPad copy and asking its customers to choose between the two, they’ve produced out a stripped-down and basic device that costs for much less than the iPad while still offering some of the tablet’s features. If you’re in the market looking for a suitable tablet for you, though, here’s the main question: Which one, if either, is right for you?
Here’s a look at how the two devices stack up in some key areas.
Apple’s huge price tag make the Kindle Fire’s price look like, well, as if it were on sale. At $199, the Fire is a full $300 less costlier than the least costliest iPad 2. That’s possibly an easier entry point for folks who are very much interested in the device but are not able to spend $500 for a portable computer when they already have a smartphone and a laptop.
One reason iPad competition are having a hard time catching on the profit, is that, they’re priced more and less the same as Apple’s hit device which costs $499 to $829, when they are trying to compete in terms of hardware .That being said, the majority of consumers have stuck with the market leader.
For evidence of higher sales of a lower price point, though, look at the HP’s “dead” TouchPad tablet, which the company said that it was discontinuing last month. The company cut down the prices to $99 for a 16GB model and $149 for a 32GB one, and they got all of the devices sold off the shelves (so much so that HP actually made more to fill the demand). The Fire’s $199 price tag may appeal to parents segment of consumers who want to buy for their child a tablet but hesitate to shell out $500 or more for something that might get dropped on the ground.
There’s a pretty clear difference here. The iPad has a 9.7-inch display, compared with a 7-inch screen on the Kindle Fire. That screen size is of course a big reason Amazon can offer its tablet at such a low price of $199 — touchscreens are extremely costly to make. But with smartphone screen sizes getting ever-bigger (the just-announced Samsung Galaxy Note will come around at 5.3 inches) the Fire ends up being in between the other two giants, Samsung galaxy Note and iPad.
That’s probably not a major issue for some users. But if watching movies or playing games is most of the reason you want a tablet, then you would definitely like a bigger screens. On the other side, the Fire is of small size and fifty percent lighter than the iPad, and Amazon has said it’s “easier to hold in one hand.” This may be favorable to some users who want to take their tablet on the go.
The Kindle Fire is definitely inspired from the iPad 2 in several ways.
The Fire doesn’t have a camera. For shutterbugs, that should not be such a big problem, as many people find it much easier to take photos on smartphones than tablets anyway. But it also means apps like Apple’s video chat service, FaceTime, won’t be find a scale back on Amazon’s device.