The Kindle Fire is almost here, and a lot of folks are excited about what they think will be iPad first true challenger. Except that Apple execs say the $US200 Fire might actually benefit the iPad. Holdonwhatnow?
That’s the preemptively defensive spiel from Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppehheimer, according to Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes, who met with both. Their point, according to Reitzes, is that the Fire is an Android device that departs sort of drastically from stock Android. That could mean even more Android fragmentation, and more people driven toward Apple’s more stable platform. Translation: Run away from the Android tablet, little developers. Come work in the warm embrace of the Apple mothership. Or, boiled down and transitive properitied around: “Android is bad for Android.”
Look, of course Apple’s going to say they’re not worried about the Kindle Fire. What else are they going to say? And their points do make some sense, in that when you’re buying a device you’re buying into its whole ecosystem — a whole state of mind, even. But most of the excitement behind the Kindle is mostly that it looks like a good tablet at a price that’s darn near impulse-buy territory, and that’s still something the iPad can’t touch. [Business Insider]