Special Pages - Reports

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Kindle Fire Sale: The current Kindle Fire tablets are still on sale (since July 9). No word on ending date. Added info on how to use some less-known features.

New banners have been appearing since July 9th on Amazon Kindle Fire pages
while I had to be away.  Here is the banner information -- the actual links are below the Amazon alerts here:






The discounts start with the 7" HD model and include the 8.9" HDX.
  Prices shown below are for models with 'special offers' on the lockscreen and represent models with increasing storage capacity:
  * New Kindle Fire HD 7" 2nd Gen - $139/169  $119/$129 [See "NOTE" below)
  * Kindle Fire HDX 7" - $229/269/309  $199/239/259   ($100 more w/ 4G-LTE cellular network access)
  * Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" - $379/429/479  $339/389/439   ($100 more w/ 4G-LTE cellular network access)

  NOTE: The lower-cost HD 7" 2nd Gen tablet shows an 8GB option. YOU SHOULDN'T CHOOSE THAT - especially with only a $10 difference in pricing during the sale.  8 GB is just not enough.  You'd be swapping out apps all the time to get space since that 8GB includes system files with barely 5 GB for apps, videos and books.

The Kindle Fire HDX 7" with 64GB of memory/storage is the best deal on the smaller tablet.

  The Kindle Fire family header showing today



  Blog articles with detail on the tablets
    KINDLE FIRE HDX/HD Tips:
      Overview of New Features
      More tips: Things to know
      More info: From later reviews

     Getting Prime Music working
     Screen Magnifier for fixed-sized pages
     Certified Miracast adapter
     How to install GooglePlay apps
     How to install Flash


  ONE caveat and a recommendation: For the Kindle Fire tablets, I tend to recommend the 32GB model, as people tend to get more and more apps, and some are sophisticated games, which take a lot of storage space.
The 64GB model, though, is only $20 more (at $259) with the current discount.
  During the Father's Day sale, that 64GB model (normally $309) was on sale for $279.

  With smaller-storage or memory models, the Cloud (Amazon's server space for our content) will serve as a personal apps "library" (as with books) and you can swap apps back to the server and to your tablet, watching
the remaining current storage apace more.

The Kindle books situation with Big 5 participants
Thursday night I want to get on the Hachette and now Simon and Schuster e-book negotiations situation and Apple's negotiated settlement to refund about $400,000,000 to millions of customers if their appeal, now in the Second Circuit in New York, fails (it'll take a year or more to decide).  So, the e-book pricing wars continue.



7 comments:

  1. The curious thing about all this is that there have been so many 'Fire sales'. Inventory reduction? Sure, but there have been almost no rumors about an HDX2. So I'm wondering if inventory is significantly higher than expected. I don't remember nearly as many HD sales last year. If they are indeed doing an HDX2 this year, it suggests that they aren't planning to keep HDX's in the lineup, and lack of buzz about HDX2 doesn't bode well for the future of the Fire. I'll be surprised if Fire Phone does even as well as Windows Phone.

    All I know is I'm not planning to get another Fire tablet, ever (um, unless maybe if they sell HDX specs w/o Mayday for $120?). I'm more or less satisfied with my unpretentious HD2, and if I'm spending $300 or more I would really prefer iOS or Android. You have seen reports that Amazon Instant Video is coming to Google Play? That also tells me people aren't falling over themselves to get a Fire just because it has AIV and Android does not, and that Amazon can no longer afford to ignore half of the mobile devices out there when it comes to selling digital video.

    I finally capitulated and am getting a Moto G via Republic Wireless ($10/mo for calls/text; $25/mo includes data). Perfect for me, I think, and it will allow my venerable iPod Touch to enjoy well-deserved semi-retirement. Besides I really think I will get a new iPad this year so I can't blow my piggy bank on a silly fancy phone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. News stories agree that tablet sales for ALL manufacturers are way down. A saturated market. The HDX 64GB 7" is a BARGAIN and then some, at $259. If I didn't have one already, I'd jump on it. I like having Mayday in case I need it. I used it once and it's pretty amazing.

      The phone: I was reading the Kindle forums and a ton of people want them and are trying to figure out how they can do this when they don't want AT&T or are beholden to their current contracted phone.

      I don't miss pure Android at all (!) though I have it on my old phone, which I've kept as a Wifi portable device and it's great for reading when out (in color and w/ better features than on my Windows phone) and it saves my actual Windows phone's battery.

      That's a great plan you got! I don't use that much data on my phone though I have a plan that's FOR more data than average, but I love to use the Internet sharing to other devices and it doesn't take that much battery drain, to my surprise...

      Delete
    2. If you buy the Fire Phone outright ($650-750), you should be able to sign with a BYOD provider rather than AT&T. Like Cricket? But then reality of the 'sticker shock' can't be avoided. You still pay that much for the phone with AT&T but it is just spread out over time. I'd rather get an iPhone if I'm going to spend that much. Republic promotes the 'wifi first' nature of their service. That works for me as I have decent wifi at all my termination points and spend very little time 'out and about'. The rest of the time I'm driving somewhere and cannot be surfing the internet. So I think the $10 plan is great, about what I pay on my current prepaid plan with a crappy dumbphone. Moto G is pretty decent though the camera is nothing special. My RX-100 broke so I'm hurting a little in the camera department. They wanted $350 to fix what is now a 3 year old camera so that was a non starter. Might as well put it towards a new one. I plan to fiddle around and see if I can get it working again (lens barrel does not extend fully, I got it unstuck once and probably just need to be a little more 'invasive').

      Delete
    3. Tom -- While we still pay that much for the phone with AT&T over time, we still get a decent data plan included for that amount of money. With an unlocked phone, the data plan is additional (unless I"m missing something).

      Sorry to read aobut your RX100 ! $350 is indecent. Good luck with the fiddling :-) I bet you'll get it working, actually.
      I was delivered a Kawai K6 acoustic upright piano today! Older model but new and I got it for a good discount.
      Love it.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for the article Andrys. Netflix app is great on Amazon Kindle Fire. If live outside USA, you can use tools like UnoTelly to get Netflix on your Amazon Kindle Fire.

    ReplyDelete

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