Last year I bought the Amazon Fire HD 8 on sale for $50. It’s an impressive unit, but it’s not as good as my iPad mini. Consequently I really don’t use it that much. I’ve thought it would make a great gift for one of my friends, but then as I go down the list, I realize all my friends already have iPads!
The main criticism of the Fire is that Amazon doesn’t ship the device with Google Play, which means it doesn’t have access to the app store. There are workarounds if you want to try to “go root” with it, but Amazon doesn’t support it, and that’s a problem.
Obviously this is a business decision Amazon has made in its ongoing turf war with Google, but I wonder if it’s the right one. My hunch is Amazon would sell many more units if the Fire was as versatile as any other Android tablet and not crippled.