The roof, the roof, the roof is on (Kindle) Fire It looks like Apple CEO Tim Cook may have taken a cheeky swipe at Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet during the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.
When posed a question regarding the tablet market, Cook responded: "Price is rarely the most important thing. A cheap product might sell some units. Somebody gets it home and they feel great when they pay the money, but then they get it home and use it, and the joy is gone."
He went on to say: "The joy is gone every day that they use it until they aren't using it anymore. You don't keep remembering 'I got a good deal' because you hate it."
Playing with (Kindle) fireAs with any company representative Cook does not mention names of any specific tablet competitors, but with his focus on low cost devices we can assume his statement is directed mainly at the Kindle Fire.
However Cook's statement is not soley aimed at Amazon's offering but seems to suggest that Apple doesn't really consider any tablet a threat to the iPad, although its rigorous legal action against Samsung makes us doubt that very much.
We're yet to see the Kindle Fire hit UK shores but if offers up a different experience to the likes of the iPad 2, with its lower price point resulting in a slight compromise on features – so is it really fair to compare it to the high-end iPad range?
Make up your own mind – check out our hands on video of the Kindle Fire below and let us know if you think Cook has a point.
From Wired via T3 Tags: Apple, iPad, Kindle Fire, tablets, Tim CookTweetreddit!Stumbleupon Your comments (9) Click to add a new commentchisy9. Might be twice the price but twice the product in my opinion. The kindle fire and iPad comparison is really comparing apples and oranges. If they were the same size and had similar specs then perhaps these should be directly compared, but let's face it they're not.
iTunes may be **** on a windows pc but no probs on Mac. I like my apple products, they do everything I want very easily without me having to worry about organising files etc, they all play nicely together and yes they may be a bit more expensive than the cheapest non-apple product but for the ease of use, design, quality I'm happy to play a slight premium.
@phila:I think the extreme car example is just that...extreme!
Alert a moderatorphila8. what makes me laugh is the iPhans trying to say "it's only x more expensive", but if you look at it a slightly different way (using US prices):
Kindle Fire: $199
iPad 2: $499
the iPad 2 is TWO AND A HALF TIMES the price of the Fire!!!
when you say "it's only £200 more", you're talking OVER DOUBLE the price, and while most Apple consumers will see £200 as a small amount, that's because they're used to paying £1000+ for a MacBook, while Windows laptops cost less than £500 (and in some cases £300)
don't think of it in terms of cost, look at it in terms of multiples difference in price - would you say "I'm thinking of buying a car, the Ford is £25k, but the Lotus is £80k, that's only £55k difference, so why not get one of those?" I very much doubt it!!!
oh, and one of the reasons I dislike iPads and iPods isn't the product (which are usually designed INCREDIBLY well), it's iTunes, which is a HORRIBLE resource hog, and tries to take over everything you want to do with media - the only good thing about iTunes (in my view) is Genius, the rest of it is just hellishly annoying - as I have Android phones, and Win7 laptops, adding media (music or videos) it takes minutes, while if I had an "i" device, it would take me at least 20 minutes - NO THANKS!
Alert a moderatorchisy7. : clearly apple doesn't appeal to the majority of people posting here, but I'm not really sure that Tim Cook is telling you what you will like. He's trying convince people that spending a little bit more-yes I think £200 is not very much- will get you a better product, in his opinion. Gosh is he promoting his own company, how dare he!
And by the way I think they're up to selling 55 million iPads...they've got to be doing something right and pleasing a huge number of consumers,despite heir products being 'overpriced'.
Alert a moderatorbradavon6. Windows desktops/laptops are largely cheaper than Apple desktops/laptops, yet Windows is on 90% of PCs. Go figure!
Cheaper doesn't A: Have to mean a lesser experience and B: Even if it does, it doesn't have to mean a significantly lesser experience.
Windows 7 laptops already prove that against £1000+ Macbooks Pros.
Besides the reviews for the Kindle Fire have largely been excellent, even taking into account it's much cheaper price.
Alert a moderatordemonhighwayman5. I got a cheap tablet (HP Touchpad) and love it. It happily runs at 1.8ghz, it has space on it for every episode of futurama ever made plus extra, It runs Android 4.0. It was a great purchase that I'm thankful I made.
I realize it was supposed to be an expensive tablet, but he didn't say anything about tablets on sale !
The kindle fire would be a great little tablet if it wasn't so locked down, but I bet it can be rooted and used properly by now. Just sad that amazon followed in apple's dirty footsteps by making everything propriety.
Alert a moderatordarth_daver4. I love how the boss of Apple loves to tell us what we will and wont like.
Alert a moderatorpom3. Chisy completely proves the point unlixes was making. Yes, £189 might not sound like a lot of money, but it could be to the target audience who are likely to buy a Kindle Fire instead. i have an iPad2 but feel I paid too much, given the fact that it is about to become an "old" model. Also, you're still comparing the price of a refurb. Even if they are top quality, they are still less valuable than a brand-new model and your talking about the price of a brand new Kindle Fire. To make a fair comparison, you have to look at what a refurbished Kindle Fire might cost. If we assume you knock off 15% as you have with the iPad 2, we can guess a refurbished Kindle Fire would cost more like £127.50 from a rrp of £150. Thats still £211 cheaper than your refurbished iPad2.
Alert a moderatorchisy2. Not sure how much the Kindle is going to be but let's say its £150. You can pick up a refurbished iPad2 16GBwifi for £339 today(saving £60) (i've never heard anyone complain about refurbished apple stuff being of duff quality) so that's £189 difference. I'm sure with a bit of will power that difference could be saved over a number of months. What if Fire sells for £200, that's only £139 difference. If you went with a refurbisehd iPad1 they can be bought for £249 for the base model. Do you hate Apple less now - probably not, hatred is usually irrational.
Alert a moderatorunlixes1. Price might not matter to his target market but some of us have a finite budget. They make it so easy to hate Apple sometimes. Usually.
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