Super cheap tablet: Amazon's Kindle Fire | Bangkok Post: learning

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Priced at half the price of an iPad, Amazon hopes to draw customers to purchase at its website with a new 7-inch screen tablet.

Read another article about how the price of tablet computers is being forced down in today's Bangkok Post (Read article and even more recent news here).

Photo above of Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet computer reading popular magazines.

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Amazon launches iPad rival, the Kindle Fire

By Charlotte Raab | AFP – Wed, 28 Sep, 2011

US online retail giant Amazon launched a touchscreen tablet computer, the Kindle Fire, on Wednesday that costs $199, less than half the price of the cheapest iPad from market-leader Apple.

The Kindle Fire, which has a seven-inch (17.78-centimeter) screen, smaller than the iPad's 9.7 inches (24.6 cm), will ship in the United States on November 15 and could emerge as a strong rival to the Apple device.

"Kindle Fire brings together all of the things we've been working on at Amazon for over 15 years into a single, fully-integrated service for customers," Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said.

Bezos also unveiled three new Kindle electronic book readers at a launch event in Manhattan: a new basic Kindle for $79, a Kindle Touch for $99 and a Kindle Touch 3G for $149.

"We're offering premium products, and we're doing it at non-premium prices," he said.

The Kindle Fire has Wi-Fi connectivity only and is powered by Google's Android software. It does not have a camera like many other leading tablets, including the latest iPad.

Bezos said Amazon is hoping to sell "many millions" and touted the features of a new Web browser in the Kindle Fire called Amazon Silk.

According to technology analysts, a low-priced Amazon tablet could pose the most serious challenge yet to the iPad, which has dominated the fast-growing market for tablet computers since it went on sale in April 2010.

"Amazon will sell millions of tablets, and the rapid fire adoption of the Kindle Fire will give app developers a reason -- finally -- to develop Android tablet apps," said Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.

"Apple's place as market leader is secure, but Amazon will be a strong number two, and we expect no other serious tablet competitors until Windows 8 tablets launch," Rotman Epps said

According to technology research firm Gartner, the iPad will account for 68.7 percent of the 69.7 million tablets sold this year and will remain the top-selling device over the next few years.

At $199, Amazon is significantly undercutting Apple with the price of the Kindle Fire. Apple's cheapest iPad sells for $499.

"Amazon is competing on price, content, and commerce," Rotman Epps said.

The Kindle Fire connects to Amazon's App Store and it comes with a 30-day free subscription to Amazon Prime, whose members pay $79 a year for free shipping and other benefits such as unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows.

The Kindle Fire also has a pre-installed Amazon shopping application as Amazon, like Apple, seeks to drive owners of the tablet to its online store, which features books, music, movies, TV shows and games

"Over the past few years, Amazon's customers have gotten used to one-click purchases of books and other published content via the Kindle," independent technology analyst Carmi Levy told AFP. 

"(Amazon's) goal is to drive as much business as possible to and through its online retail presence," he said. "Amazon doesn't need to maximize its profits on every tablet sold.

"It'll take thinner margins -- or even per-unit losses -- if that means getting as many Amazon tablets into consumers' hands before the all-important Christmas shopping season," the analyst said.

Technology research firm Forrester has forecast that Amazon could sell 3-5 million tablets in the fourth quarter alone...

Shares in US bookseller Barnes & Noble, which makes the Nook e-reader and a color Nook tablet, lost 6.89 percent to close at $12.30 while Apple lost 0.56 percent to $391.01.

(Source: Bangkok Post, Amazon launches iPad rival, the Kindle Fire, By Charlotte Raab | AFP – Wed, 28 Sep, 2011, page B7 in the paper version of the newspaper)

Tablet and IT Industry Vocabulary

Kindle Fire - "a tablet computer version of Amazon.com's Kindle e-book reader... will have a color 7" multi-touch display with IPS technology and run on a forked version of Google's Android operating system. It includes access to Amazon's app store, streaming movies and TV shows in addition to Kindle's e-books. It is scheduled to be released in mid November. The device will sell for US$199. Its external dimensions are 7.5" x 4.7". Excluding its external border the screen is a little larger than a 4x6 picture" (See Wikipedia)

Amazon - the world's largest online retailer, known for selling books but also sells DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in 1994  (See Wikipedia)
retail - to sell directly to the public for their own use ขายปลีก
online retail giant Amazon

tablet computer - a flat computer that looks like a book and is easy to carry and hold (See Wikipedia)

Android-powered tablets - a tablet computer using the Android operating system (OS)
Operating System (OS) - on a computer the software system that connects computer programs and software to the hardware (See Wikipedia)
Android operating system - Google's platform for mobile phone and tablet software based on Linux and providing data storage, text messaging, a web browser, and video-audio-image support, as well as several other features (See Wikipedia)
Android 3.0 Honeycomb - a version of the Android operating system to be released in the future (See Wikipedia also here)

touchscreen - new technology that allows devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers to be operated by touching the screen and selecting things, rather than by pressing keys and buttons with fingers (See Wikipedia)

leading tablets - the most popular and highest selling tablets

Windows 8 tablets - the innovative new technology and radical rethink that Microsoft is planning for its next release of Windows (See previous article and Windows 8)

device - a machine or piece of equipment that does a particular job, including "tablet computers" อุปกรณ์ เครื่องมือ
gadget - a small computer or technological device or object that can perform some task (examples: a GPS device that shows you where your car is on the map) (See Wikipedia)

application - a computer program or "computer application" that helps people do some useful task, the popularity of the word has increased recently with the widespread use of mobile devices such as the iPhone, IPad and Android devices (See Wikipedia)

app - Same as "application" (more common now, starting with mobile phones)
app developers - computer programmers who write apps for tablets, mobile phones, etc ...
tablet apps - apps that run on tablet computers
pre-installed application - apps that come with the computer when you buy it

electronic book readers - like a tablet, but you can only read ebooks
3G - allows you to use your tablet as a telephone or connect to the internet
Wi-Fi - the normal wireless connection to the internet that most people use (at work, coffee shops, at home, etc)
Wi-Fi connectivity - being able to connect to the internet with Wi-Fi
Amazon Silk - the name of the browser in the new Kindle Fire

streaming of movies - when the movie or video comes to the person watching it on the their computer in a continous stream from another place (server), different from watching a movie that is already located on your computer (See Wikipedia)
unlimited streaming of movies - watching as many movies as you want by streaming
one-click purchases of books - easy and simple purchase of books (using little time, wasting little of the customer's time)

benefits - goods things that people can get (from a product) ผลประโยชน์

features - all the good things that a product offers a customer
tout - show people something to interest them in it
touted the features - show customers features to interest them in the features

rival - a person, group, team or business that competes with another คู่แข่ง
launched - start (offering a new product for the first time)  เริ่มต้นดำเนินการ
launches iPad rival - start selling a new tablet that could sell a lot (take customers away from the iPad)

could emerge as a strong rival - may become a strong competitor (taking customers away from the other product)

a line of products - a group of related products that a company sells (markets and advertises them together as a group, example: Samsung Galaxy product line of mobile phones and tablets)
a new line of products - a new group of products (that the company is going to market and advertise as a group) 

introduces a new line of products - makes a new line of products available to customers for purchase for the first time 
introduces the new line of Kindle products

market-leader - the company that has the most customers (in a market for a certain kind of product)
market-leader Apple - Apple is the company that has the most customers (in the tablet computer market)

place as market leader is secure
secure - protected; safe from attack or harm ปลอดภัย
a strong number two

Gartner - an IT industry research company, does research on IT and telecom markets and industries around the world, for a fee (See Wikipedia) 
Forrester Research - an independent technology and market research company  (similar to Gartner) that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers, has research centers in the US and Europe (See Wikipedia)

brings together all of the things we've been working on

single, fully-integrated service for customers - customers buy one service not many (more convenient)
integrated - combined so that they work well together (as a unified whole or unit; in one effective system) ที่รวมเข้าด้วยกัน

founder - a person who establishes an institution, business, or organization ผู้ก่อตั้ง

unveiled - announced something officially that was previously a secret เปิดเผย introduced แนะนำ

launch - to start selling a new product or service to the public เริ่มต้น เริ่มโครงการ เริ่มวางขาย
launch event - an event to show customers and the media new products or services 

premium - special features or service that you pay extra for
premium products at non-premium prices - products with many features but cheap 

technology analysts
independent - not taking help or money from other people พึ่งตนเอง free from outside influence เป็นอิสระ
independent technology analyst

pose - to create a dangerous or difficult situation or problem   เป็นเหตุให้
challenge - to invite someone to do something difficult or risky, such as to compete or fight ท้า something that needs a lot of skill, energy, and determination to deal with or achieve สิ่งที่ท้าทาย, การท้าทาย

could pose the most serious challenge yet to - may be the product that is most competitive with it, that could take away market share from (the iPad)

dominated - controlled ถูกควบคุม ถูกชักใย บงการ
has dominated the fast-growing market for tablet computers

rapid - happening very fast and quickly อย่างรวดเร็ว
adoption - start use a new system
rapid fire adoption - when many people start using a new system (such as the Kindle tablet) very quickly

reason - why an event happened or why you would do an event เหตุ ; เหตุผล ; สาเหตุ
give X a reason to do Y

significantly - in an important way อย่างสำคัญ
X undercutting Y with price - X is gaining customers and selling its product by reducing the price below other companies

competing on price, content, and commerce
content - the stories and pictures inside a newspaper, website or other form of media เนื้อหา 
commerce - all the activities involved in buying and selling things

subscription - an amount of money that you pay regularly to receive a product or service or to be a member of an organization การบอกรับเป็นสมาชิก

shipping - the transport of goods from one place (store, warehouse) to another (customer's home)

X drives Y to do Z - X tries to make Y do activity Z
seeks to drive owners of the tablet to its online store

presence - when someone or something is in a place การอยู่ในสถานที่หนึ่ง (ของบุคคล)
retail presence - a place where a company sells products (examples: stores in shopping malls, ecommerce stors on the internet)
online retail presence - an ecommerce store on people can visit on the interet where the company sells products that are shipped to people after they buy with a credit card (See Wikipedia)

as much as possible

drive business as possible to and through its online retail presence
drive as much business as possible to and through its online retail presence

maximize profits - make the largest amount of money that they can make (standards "economics" language, the goal of any "firm" or company in economics"

profit margin - the profit that a company makes (usually expressed as a percentage of revenue or the money the company receives from customers before expenses and costs are taken out) 
thinner margins - smaller profit margins, less profit

per-unit losses - money that the company loses for every item of the the product sold

getting Amazon tablets into consumers' hands - selling Amazon tablets to customers 
the all-important Christmas shopping season - in the US and Europe shopping for the Christmas holiday creates a big increase in sales in December

forecast - stating what you believe will happen in the future พยากรณ์ คาดการณ์
fourth quarter - the last three months of the business year (October, November, December)

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