Apple iPad vs Kindle Fire: Part 2
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
The other day, we compared some of the physical characteristics of the Apple iPad against the recently released Kindle Fire.
Today, we will look at some of the other features and give you our overall impression.
Content available:
Both the iPad and the Kindle Fire can access movies, music, games, books and other reading material. The only difference is that the Kindle Fire uses Amazon to download the material and the Apple iPad uses Apple’s iTunes software. Amazon has sweetened the deal a by bundling all of its services and making them available to Fire users.
The real difference (for now) are the number of apps available to each device. With such a large jump on the competition, the iPad currently has many more apps available to it’s customers. It remains to be seen how many apps will be written for the Kindle Fire since developers are already stretched writing them for Apple products, Android, RIM, etc.
The downside of Amazon’s Fire is that there is no way to use alternative music apps such as Spotify or Pandora on the device. Amazon is, of course, pushing their own music services.
Point goes to: iPad
Web browsing and email:
Both the iPad and the Fire can access the web and email. They each use their own browsers. If you are familiar with any Apple products, you will immediately feel at home when you start up your Safari on iPad for the first time, however Amazon’s Silk browser is very easy to navigate.
Point goes to: tie
Flash:
Here’s where the Kindle Fire has a slight edge. It supports flash technology right out of the box, unlike the iPad.
Point goes to: Kindle Fire
USB:
This is something that has been missing from the iPad all along – a USB port. The Kindle comes not with a standard USB port but a micro-USB – still incredibly handy for backing up or transferring data.
Point goes to: Kindle Fire
Price:
The Kindle Fire is priced at $199 and the Apple iPad (entry level) at $499. Do we have to say anything else?
Point goes to: Kindle Fire
After reviewing all the specs and features of both products, we don’t have a clear winner! Many here at West Florida Components are Apple loyalists and would choose the iPad over any competition but there were a few that admitted that the Kindle Fire had some appeal and wouldn’t mind owning one.
Maybe the answer is to get one of each?
