>I have no idea what people expect for $199. I find it very valuable for the money.
Thing is, there are other vendors who are creating REAL Google/Android tablets in the $199 range, as he mentions. From those tablets you can get the entire Android experience, unlike the Fire (unless you root it and put another OS build on it, of course -- though that won't fix the lack of GPS or cameras).
At least for me, part of the reason I like the Fire is that it isn't the full Android experience - I have a Archos tablet, that I don't use for any reason other than to test things. With the Fire I look past/don't see the parts of Android that I dislike - and I think a lot of that is that I really only use the Kindle for the occasional E-Book/App, watch a streaming video, or listen to music.
For the subset of things that I actually want it for, it does well - very well in my opinion. I'm sure it likely falls flat if you expect more out of it (which it sounds like he did).
This is what I've found too. I just spent my evening enjoyably using my Kindle Fire when I could have just as easily picked up my iPad. The size is actually refreshing to me and the interface has some really nice features.
All these reviews seem really off the mark to me. The PR about this product is about what you can do with it. You can watch movies, read books, and play games. The product page makes very little mention of Android. They aren't selling it as an Android tablet. It's an Amazon Kindle tablet, and in spite of all the reviews, I think it's going to be a big hit.
I can only imagine how popular the Kindle Fire 2 will be once they have time to refine everything.
What version of Android is the Archos tablet running: 1.6? Even 2.2 is clunky compared to 3.0, and 4.0 looks wonderful.
More to the point, none of the Archos tablets (that I'm aware of) come with the "full Google/Android" experience either. They use appslib.com to distribute apps, which has less coverage than the Amazon AppStore, and it comes with none of the other Google apps either.
So you're comparing the Fire, a non-Google experience, with the Archos, another non-Google experience. Not relevant.
It's funny that suddenly we say the market is full of "REAL" tablets in the $199 range, when just a month or three ago everyone was excited about the Fire because there 'were no "REAL" $199 tablets'
I have an ASUS Transformer and love it, but I have used the camera just once and never have used the GPS. I would think that is pretty common usage pattern for most tablet owners as they use their phone for both of those tasks.
I've never understood the inclusion of GPS on tablets. It's one of those features that you imagine you could use but end up not having any real world application. Most people use a tablet indoors, guess where GPS is utterly useless?
I imagine it's like people that buy an SUV for the potential off-road capabilities.
My tablet (iPad 3G first gen) makes for a great portable street directory when I'm in the car with my girlfriend. It's definitely not its primary purpose for me, but I find it much easier to use than a dead tree copy. Aside from having a really natural easy way to move around the map, you always know where you are. :)
I always take my tablet with me when traveling, and at least with that I don't think I am alone.
It would make a great offline map if it had GPS. The iPhone runs out of battery so fast and has a tiny screen.
Modern GPS chipsets actually work ok in a lot of buildings. Some of it is higher sensitivity, but a lot is that they get location opportunistically (when entering/exiting) and then remember location. A-GPS helps a lot too.
I believe what most people believe is the GPS chip working is actually the location service built into the software. Unless they are transmitting in a completely different band GPS is practically useless indoors. Now with location services and AGPS you'll get a lock while indoors but the GPS chip is probably not doing much at this point.
I've got a Nook tablet without the GPS feature and I'm able to get my location from the wifi connection. It's not as accurate as a true GPS lock but good enough to get me information on the shops around me.
The Kindle fire has two processors, which most of the $199 tablets don't have. Adding a camera can be a lot cheaper than adding a second CPU. A cheap camera chip can be $0.17.
Thing is, there are other vendors who are creating REAL Google/Android tablets in the $199 range, as he mentions. From those tablets you can get the entire Android experience, unlike the Fire (unless you root it and put another OS build on it, of course -- though that won't fix the lack of GPS or cameras).