The Kindle FIRE

How cool does that sound? Some marketing company somewhere made millions for their ingenious re-branding of the Kindle. They could have gone the lazy way and just called it "The Kindle 2", "The Kindle II" if they were feeling exotic or maybe "The Kindle Deux" if they were feeling pretentious and vaguely European. Anywho- I know that by now the Kindle Fire is old news and, some claim, a copy cat. They announced it almost a full month ago now, and even though devices aren't scheduled to start shipping until November 15th, you can certainly go and purchase one so that you can have one shipped to you immediately.

There are a couple of things that intrigue me about The Kindle Fire (capitalized just like that please, or, if you're feeling really caught up in the Amazon spirit, The Kindle FIRE).

What We Know: Magazines are actually charging MORE on the Kindle Fire for electronic copies than for physical, print copies. Some magazines, like The New Yorker, will be $60/year!
Why It's Interesting: Up until now, everyone had assumed that print media was going the way of the dinosaur, and that change was occurring so slowly in that industry that hose media companies wouldn't know what hit 'em until it was too late. Slow to innovate, slow to adapt. But, the magazines have impressed me with their business strategery-- in the new pricing model, they win if consumers decide to follow the masses and buy their media through this new-fangled thing called the internets, because their profit margins will sky-rocket! Their customers are paying more for a product that actually costs them less to produce. For those consumers who need their fix of Vanity Fair but are deterred by paying slightly higher prices, they'll be driven toward physical, print media-- buying the magazines a little bit of time as they downscale their print production facilities and migrate toward ....the future. Let's not underestimate these print media guys-- they know that it's time to get with the program, this move is not a desperate attempt to stay relevant, it's a strategy where they're trying to play two moves ahead--softening the blow of those moving away to print media, while also corralling customers into thinking physical media is relevant so that they can buy a bit of time to migrate. Genius.

What We Know: At $199, it's dramatically cheaper than the cheapest possible iPad ($499)
Why It's Interesting: Amazon assumes that any money is loses on hardware purchase costs will be made up through the purchase of software, which users must purchase through their channels (books through the Amazon E-Book Store for Kindle, music through their mp3 music store, streaming movies through the Amazon Prime store). It's interesting that the Kindle is seen as the iPad competitor, because the comparison here in unbeatable-- in the same way that Apple has drawn hurrahs and disgruntled mumbles because of its "walled garden" approach (if you use Apple products, you only use Apple products--iTunes, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, etc.), Amazon is following the exact same methods. Albeit the Amazon approach is more focused on the software component, the strategy is strikingly similar.

What We Know: Amazon uses a customized, proprietary "Silk Browser", which, because of its cloud-based nature, tracks everything. And we mean everything.
Why It's Interesting: So remember awhile back, when I was wondering who would win in the battle of the giants between Google and Amazon? Well it looks like Amazon is really stepping up its game. By using this Silk browser, which tracks not only which websites its users are going to, but how frequently and how much they're buying along with allowing Amazon to instantly perform price comparisons across products, Amazon has positioned itself to gather more information on its customers from a single software application than any previous player. Undoubtedly, that data needs to go somewhere. Google better watch out.

A lot of additional chatter has happened to figure out if the Fire would ever be a candidate for the mobile payments hardware rush. I'm a bit torn so far. On one hand, the Fire is linked with Amazon, which has been integrated with Amazon's checkout, which was kind of groundbreaking in its offer of phrase-based secure check out. On the other hand, the Fire feels like a consumer device out and out-- I find it hard to think that a merchant could convert it into a mobile terminal. I will need to see if any additional work is done to secure the device, so time will tell!

Until then though.... the Kindle could be the next product that is en fuego! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)