Amazon Takes a Swing at Apple & iPad Mini
October 29, 2012, 10:24 AM
By Matthew Lynley
blogs.wsj.com
Amazon has begun advertising the Kindle Fire HD, its 7-inch $199 tablet, on the home page and included blow-by-blow comparisons with Apple's AAPL 0.00% more expensive 7.9-inch iPad Mini.
Apple’s executives have been critical of 7-inch tablets like the Kindle Fire HD. Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated that on its most recent earnings call: “Let me be clear, we would not make a 7-inch tablet. We don’t think they’re good products.”
While Apple has touted the size of the iPad Mini as an advantage over the Kindle Fire HD and other smaller 7-inch tablets, the iPad Mini also sports a lower resolution than some of those tablets, coming in at 1,024 by 768 pixels, or 163 pixels per inch. The Kindle Fire HD has a sharper display, with about 216 pixels per inch.
Amazon’s tagline is, “much more for much less,” zeroing in on the difference between the price of its tablet and the $329 iPad Mini, and the screen comparison.
In a statement to AllThingsD, Amazon said “Wednesday was the $199 Kindle Fire HD’s biggest day of sales since launch and up 3x week over week.”
The major advantage Apple has over Amazon and other tablet-makers, however, is that the iPad Mini launches with 275,000 apps supporting it, because it has the same resolution as the iPad 2. Amazon’s tablet, and app ecosystem, is still much newer.
Amazon, Apple, gadgets, iPad Mini, kindle fire |
