Kindle Fire HD: Good Reviews But Apple iPad Mini Winning

The Kindle Fire HD tablet sold by Amazon launched to rave reviews and has brought many new customers to the online retail giant. The Kindle Fire HD uses a heavily modified version of the Android operating system that focuses on Amazon’s products and multimedia. Amazon has a lot of catching up to do since the iOS-based iPad Mini still has Apple set to maintain control over the tablet market, with iPad Mini sales outpacing the Kindle Fire HD by 50 percent.

According to iTechPost the Kindle Fire was given the “HD” label because of the new and improved high resolution display:

“The Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch features a 1920 x 1200 HD display and provides ‘zero glare for online and offline video playback.’ Customers are not only excited about feature, but also because of the various storage spaces not available for downloading songs and videos. They can get either 16GB or 32GB of storage drive.”

Reviews also highlight the 40 percent faster Wi-Fi local internet connection and the amazing sound quality of the speakers. Some customers consider the faster Wi-Fi a big selling point since it provides “faster download speeds for movies and music from Amazon.” Better “internet browsing has helped boost the popularity in the Kindle Fire HD series tablet.”

According to ZDNet, developer are focused on releasing mobile and tablet apps for the iOS and Android. This is a challenge for the Kindle Fire and Microsoft’s Surface:

“Specifically, researchers found that less than 22 percent of mobile developers are ‘very interested’ in building mobile apps for the Amazon Kindle, indicating that ‘the Kindle’s install base and revenue potential are too small to entice developers to build for the platform.'”

Although the Kindle Fire HD is based upon Android technology apparently developers have to port their app code and release it through the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Program. Developers receive 70 percent of all sales and there is a $99 signup fee, which is very similar to Apple’s developer program for their Apple Store. Kindle HD users currently do not have access to Google’s massive Android app market, especially Google maps, although it’s possible Amazon could change this strategy in the future.

Do you think the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is worth buying over the Apple iPad Mini?