Kindle Fire HD 7" Sale: now $169 ($30 discount) "For a Limited Time." Amazon tops Saatchi's Clear survey as #1 desired brand in the U.S. Plus some thoughts on the Nook tablet situation.

Kindle Fire HD on sale again, this time at $169

I just happened to click on Amazon's Kindle Fire HD tablet page to see if there was some kind of sale, and voila, there it was.

Remember that if you paid a higher price at Amazon itself within the last 30 days, you can ask Amazon Kindle Support for a credit (1-866-321-8851 or contact them this way).  A difference-credit has been the case for a few years, at least -- and of course that's somewhat based on the fact there is always a 30-day full refund offer on any new Kindle if you don't want it after all, as Amazon seems to feel very secure about its positives.

 I stress this because lately there have been sales for recent holidays and now, possibly because B&N is ending production on its Nook HD tablets and dropping the prices to get their remaining Nook tablets to sell faster (as that has been the problem) as they try to find a partner who will take on the costs of producing these later.

  B&N has therefore given up the attempt to have tablet owners use B&N's far less attractive (almost nil) tablet ecosystem.  They did give their customers access to the Google Play store after agreeing to Google's terms, consisting of many restrictions on use of B&N's own areas (which Amazon would not do, since theirs have been profitable), but the Nook tablets don't have
  . a camera for Skype
  . a built-in HDMI-out direct to TV
  . the strong WiFi rep the Kindle Fire HD's have
  . the Dolby Enhanced stereo speakers, louder and clearer than on laptops, nor
  . the built-in web streaming viewer (for Flash on most popular websites)

  As with the Kindle Fire HD, the Nook tablets do have a great display, with somewhat higher resolution than on the Kindle.   B&N doesn't, as Amazon does, allow straight downloading of any apps from any other sites though, including vendors' own sites.  But Google Play access would be good enough for most.

  What happens when and if they find someone to produce Nook tablets later is anyone's guess.
  A problem for B&N has always been adequate customer support, so they'll have to find a way to improve that with any models produced by whatever company is found to do that.

  16 or 32 GB storage?
  Although I tend to recommend lower-priced items as a rule, I recommend, for some, getting the 32-Gig-storage version for the $199 (normally $229) because multimedia files (graphics galore in complex apps and games, plus videos especially) are just very large and with 32GB you won't need to worry often about what to swap out (to the Cloud) next before doing something else you want to do.

  However, for the sale-priced $169 16 GB-storage model, the Cloud storage (free and unlimited for any Amazon digital purchases) is meant for holding apps, music, and books until you need them and then they're easily downloadable.

  The Amazon PRIME program, as regular readers of the Amazon forums and this blog know, is a feature that's hard to beat (and along with all this goes the X-Ray feature on many of their instant videos).

  The free trial on any new Kindle Fire gives the owner an idea of whether or not to pay the $79/yr (equiv to $6.58/mo.) for the Prime program's free 2-day shipping of physical products and then the bonus features of free instant videos (thousands of older movies and tv series, the latter having some very popular just-ended season series which are now exclusive to Amazon).
  Also included is the free borrowing of one Kindle book per calendar month from the Prime Lending Library, with no waiting time or due dates.


Amazon considered #1 "most desirable brand" in the U.S. market, per Clear's report this year
"According to a new “Brand Desire” study by M&C Saatchi’s brand consultancy division Clear, Amazon leads in the U.S. market as the most desirable brand.  Clear surveyed consumers in the U.S., U.K., and Australia about 678 different brands."

For those interested in the details or to see the reasons given:

' Per news.investors.com:
  In the U.S., it interviewed 4,600 consumers about 245 familiar brands.
...
  The Reese's brand, owned by Hershey (HSY), ranked No. 2, followed by Disney, owned by Walt Disney (DIS).
...
  While Amazon kept up its allure, Apple (AAPL) lost some of its luster.  Its brand desirability dropped to No. 50 from No. 8 in 2012 as the brand wavered and lost focus, according to the report.

  "Starting with an onslaught of too many products in the fall of 2012, the debacle of Maps' reliability, as well as 'function over feeling' branding, has affected its reputation for providing technology that truly matters," the report found."

[My note: That seems unduly harsh and likely not accurate, as survey wording is key.  As we all know, Apple is doing just fine.  What's ultimately important in our modern world is the bottom line, and its customers are devoted and, for any of the above factors, pretty forgiving, from what I've encountered.]

... "Amazon’s desirability stems from the great success of the Kindle Fire HD, a steady stream of perks for Amazon Prime members, an increased focus on its Prime Instant Video, and a continued stream of meaningful innovation such as Amazon Lockers.  Amazon has truly transformed from a marketplace for shopping to a digital hub for consumers to manage their lives,” states Clear in a press release via Investor’s Business Daily.

"However, Apple was still the top-rated brand in the British and Australian markets"

Will end this here, as I'd like to make sure this gets out earlier.

One great thing happened  I've had to (because the blog is considered popular) deal with about 500 spam comments a day, with 300 caught by the Blogger spam detector, and then each day I had to go through, one by one, about 200 comments that were considered to be needing either approval or to be sent to Blogger's Spam folder.  That was exhausting.

  They've finally fixed that problem very well, so I'll now have more time and energy to get more blog articles out.



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