The Kindle Fire is being heralded by most journalists as the apex tablet and will prove to be serious competition for the Apple iPad. I don’t think this is necessarily the case because of the absence of critical features for the international market.
The Kindle Fire has many core features that are being hyped as being key selling points. It has free cloud storage, Amazon App Store, Amazon Instant Video, and Prime. The problem is none of these features are available for Non-USA based residents! Amazon has not made any of their core features that are a part of the Kindle Fire valid for Canada and other countries.
Right now, the Amazon Kindle Fire is only available for pre-order in the USA. It does not have any international availability on Amazon to be ordered unless you are an American resident.
If Amazon hopes to seriously compete against the iPad, I would surmise they should make their services available to key markets. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and Canada are poised to continue their growth in the tablet sector. If Amazon continues to ignore the broader international market, customers are likely to keep buying iPads or other competing tablets, such as the Kobo Vox.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
