Amazon.com's Home Run

So, most people know that Amazon.com introduced new e-readers and tablets on Thursday.  They're quite good for what they are.

The trouble I've seen in the first comments I've seen is that the Android crowd thinks that they're not a good deal when you have to modify them for their purposes.  The people Amazon.com are targeting are not technology people or Android/Google fanatics.  They're targeting people who want to read books and magazines and listen to music or watch movies.

You get a great deal, if you want to live in Amazon.com's eco-system for their products.  Oh, by the way, their products are books, music, and video.  The e-readers and tablets are just intermediate devices to help you enjoy their products.  That's just the opposite of what Apple are doing.  They make the media available to sell the hardware.  Elsewhere, you find the circus of Google and Android with throwaway tablets to too expensive, mediocre tablets but only the Google Nexus 7 really being worth buying.

They could be my personal choice, but they aren't.  Once again, the size isn't ideal but for the 7" Kindle Fire HD tablet, the shape makes the size more acceptable.  It's easier to hold, even if it isn't the shape of a movie.  Considering that 16:9 isn't the correct shape for the widest movies, and 21:9 televisions are just starting to be available, going wide may not be possible in a practical way.

The new paper white display, at the bottom of the heap, is to my thinking better late than never.  Re-creating the printed page is important to many users, and probably to the writers.  If you have a vision for your work, it's hardly trying to look at a dark, blurry display to make out words.  You want your words to make hearts beat faster by pushing the imagination to new levels.

Amazon.com have done a great job anticipating their customers' desires.  They should do well.  The fact that they're using the Android operating system won't really matter to their users.  They just want to consume media.  I just saw their new advertising on BBC America.  It was completely brilliant.  They understand and it was as slick and savvy as Apple's best adverts.

Update: 2013.09.10: Given that tablets are changing rapidly and that Barnes & Noble have given up on producing their own Nook line, Amazon.com has more to do and more to enjoy.  It's likely that they have the safest Android-based tablets but that means that most Android lovers will tell people that is a bad thing--that people using them are fenced into a kiddie playground, instead of being out with the adults.  It's probably true, but drunk drivers hit trees on the way home, don't they?