It seems there could be some trouble with the upcoming Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. Certainly, it is easy to see the difference between your standard knockoff tablet device and the incredibly priced, $200 Fire. However, it could be that this low cost comes with a high price – a lack of apps.
After a comment on Google+ by Robert Scoble, it would appear that the Amazon Kindle Fire is not getting all of what you might expect in an Android device. To quote his post:
“I interviewed one company today that has an awesome Android app (millions of downloads already). They went through and demoed their new thing to me. Made me want to turn in my iPhone and go with the Android, but can’t talk about it until next week. Then they pulled out a Samsung Tablet and said “it works here too.”
That was all great, until I asked them “what about the Amazon Kindle Fire?”
They said “nope, Amazon is keeping our app from running.”
“Huh?”
Turns out that Amazon has turned off many APIs that are available on other Android devices, so many Android apps won’t run on the Amazon Kindle Fire.
When people talk about “fragmentation” this is what they mean.
It bums me out, but will live with it. After all, it’s only $200.
And THAT is why they are gonna sell millions, maybe even more than the iPad is selling.
But that “it isn’t full Android” is gonna cause me to have a bad taste in my mouth. What about for you?”
What does that mean for you users? Missing out on a couple apps? A large number of apps? Android fans and Kindle Fire fans will just have to wait and see what limitations are being put on the device. On the other hand, it shouldn’t slow sales if the pre-order numbers are any indication of the growing popularity of the Kindle Fire – and the prospect of rooting the Fire with full Android Honeycomb looks increasingly likely, too.
