If you needed any more notice that the digital tablet has become the latest Former Luxury Item to Become a Necessity, look no further. Amazon recently released a $50, seven-inch Fire tablet. Yes, $50. Sure, it’s bottom of the line, but, hey, you can even buy the thing in six packs like your favorite microbrew.
Yes, seriously. A tablet for every room in your house. Can’t remember where you put it? No worries. Leave one in the car? Not a big deal. Leave one on the roof of your car and spread it out all over the freeway? Irritating, but not a huge loss.
How is the market reacting to this revelation? To this point, with a collective ho-hum. The consumer equivalent of hitting the snooze button. And why not? There are a host of cheap – and cheaply made – Android tablets on the market. Why should anyone get excited about yet another Dollar Store version of a popular tech item?
Amazon fires back that these are sturdy little stocking stuffers. The bells and whistles include a decent processor, a front and back camera, 8GB of storage, an SD card slot if you want more space(!) and a few other reasons to get you to at least stop and think about it. Just remember, you get what you pay for.
And, realistically, according to New York based entrepreneur Roman Temkin; “this new revelation may just be a publicity stunt to get more people paying attention to the release of a new line of bigger, better tablets and new Fire TV devices.”
As for publicity, they desperately need it. Consumer reaction to Amazon’s digital device and streaming TV lineup has been, at best, tepid. New Fire tablets? Huh? Fire TV? I had no idea?
That’s a shame because these new toys come with some interesting interactive features. First, both come with a remote that includes a voice search button to access Alexa. You know, Amazon’s version of Siri. So, you can speak your commands, and your Fire TV obeys. Yep, just like Apple TV.
But just because these functions are “also” features, doesn’t mean this machine is an also-ran. Consumers are doing themselves a disservice if they don’t at least fairly consider Amazon’s tech offerings. Especially, the Android crowd not already committed to iOS cross-platform compatibility.
