Amazon Gives Tablet Buyers Choices

Amazon is smart. The company knows that to be successful in the tablet market, offering a single slate is not a good idea. Instead, Amazon sells last year’s model for $159 for those on a budget. And those who want a 7-inch, updated tablet can still get that. Amazon even offers an 8.9-inch version. Variety is absolutely essential.

Amazon’s 8.9-inch HD display available on the Kindle Fire is a fantastic screen for those looking to watch videos or play video games. In fact, the tablet has in-plane switching technology, allowing for better color representation. And thanks to its 254 pixels per inch, high-definition visuals are the name of the game.

As noted, the Kindle Fire is cheap. The cheapest version goes for $159, but the high-end model can be purchased for just $499. Putting that into perspective, Apple’s iPad is on sale for $499 to start, and that’s without the 4G LTE or ample storage. Simply put, the Kindle Fire offers the best value on the market.

Amazon has made the smart decision to bundle its many services into the Kindle Fire. So, customers will find access to its Prime Instant Video, as well as its Kindle e-bookstore. Amazon even supports its DRM-free MP3 store in the device. With all of that, customers are getting a full-fledged multimedia experience upon booting up the Kindle Fire.

As customer purchases have shown over the last several months, 4G LTE matters a lot. Unlike the majority of low-end tablets, Amazon’s slate supports the ultra-high-speed mobile option. By doing so, Amazon is offering customers the chance to connect to the Web wherever they are—something it didn’t do last year—and puts its device in direct competition with Apple’s iPad.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire comes with a feature called FreeTime. The feature allows parents to decide exactly what apps their kids can access on their Kindle Fires, and for how long. It’s a subscription-based service that costs $4.99 per month, but parents hoping to limit their children’s interaction with the scary online world will find it’s a solid value for what they get.

For Amazon customers, it’s hard to not choose the Kindle Fire. Upon breaking the device out of the box, users will find that their Amazon.com profile has already been bundled into the system. With that, users can make Amazon.com purchases with a single click, without having to input all of their credentials. Better yet, Amazon cloud storage comes standard with the Kindle Fire, and if owners are Prime customers, they’ll be able to stream movies (and get a discount on FreeTime) in seconds.

Amazon has found a way to bridge the gap between its many products and those made by other companies. So, if a Kindle Fire owner who is watching a video on the tablet then wants to continue watching on his or her home television, it’s possible through the use of an Amazon app installed on a device hooked up to the set. Conversely, multimedia being viewed on, say, an iPad can be picked up on the Kindle Fire without any trouble. Amazon’s ease of access is a real selling point for customers.

One of the biggest issues with low-end tablets is that they typically only come with 8GB or 16GB of storage. Amazon, however, offers up to 64GB of storage in its 8.9-inch model. Plus, with Amazon cloud storage, total storage quickly soars.

According to Amazon, its second-generation Kindle Fires come with up to 10 or 11 hours of battery life on a single charge, helping it to match the iPad. That’s important. The iPad is the benchmark by which all other tablets are judged. And by matching it, Amazon is going a long way in making customers realize that its Kindle Fire cannot be overlooked.