Neither Amazon’s Kindle Fire nor the newly launched Nook tablet poses any threat to Apple’s famous iPad, according to analysts.
Barnes’ and Noble released its Nook tablet priced at $250 (Rs 12,000) on Monday. Kindle Fire from Amazon released earlier is priced at $199 (Rs 9,900).
Analysts suggest the new devices are instead opening the market by selling to consumers who wouldn’t have shelled out money for an iPad.
Tom Mainelli of IDC says, “I wouldn’t think Apple would be losing a lot of sleep about either. The Nook and the Fire are throwing the [tablet] market open to a larger group of consumers who would not have spent the $500 for an iPad.”
Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research says, “The Nook, like the Fire, expands the market. All three can be successful. But if Apple keeps selling iPads at its current rate, it could sell 20 million worldwide in the fourth quarter.”
At the same time, Amazon’s Kindle Fire is also expected to do well in the market, simply because it is a different kind of device which can even coexist with the iPad.
Since the time the original Kindle was launched in 2007, e-readers have improved a lot as they have become smaller and faster. The battery life of these devices has gone up by about 85 per cent and storage has reached up to 2 GB from the earlier 256 MB.
However, Apple’s iPad has managed to keep its EDGE over others till now.