Comments on: Amazon’s Kindle Fire 4G bait and switch

By: Uhhh

Uhhh — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 02:58:35 +0000

Maybe part of that markup is going to AT&T to subsidize the absurdly low $50/year data plan they’re offering? Seems like poor reporting (or an Apple bias).

By: Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 03:54:07 +0000

I would like to know how much it would cost if you needed to use more them 250mb at any month time.

By: dronechip

dronechip — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 18:31:07 +0000

Yeah, -1 for this article. On top of the other flaws already pointed out in the comments, you seem to imply that companies aren’t entitled to make a profit off of their additional features … that if the price difference is $130, then ALL of that $130 should be hard expenses passed directly onto the consumer at cost. Lame.

By: Donald

Donald — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:48:51 +0000

You may be right, except for one thing. A tablet costs a pricey $50-$60 per month for mobile access, in addition to the hardware cost. That’s $600-$720 a year, every year. Vs. Amazon’s $50 a yr. I have a relative in a nursing home w/o access to wi-fi. I can’t afford to pay for her to have mobile broadband every year, so she doesn’t have internet access or what she wants most, e-mail. The Kindle Fire 4G would make her having e-mail capability a possibility. There is no other thing like this on the market, esp at this price. Plus she would be able to stream a few movies, play a few games, and do a little net surfing. The bargain is in the not having a hefty monthly fee. Not everyone has wi fi access.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 02:10:08 +0000

I agree. The ARTICLE was bait and switch. Although the info about modems was interesting.

“A deadline that came before an idea!’ HEHEHE

But you know, an internet writer is a tough job. No hits and you get fired. The measurement of your “performance” is unfair, brutal, and instant.

By: New Kindle Fire HD

New Kindle Fire HD — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:44:25 +0000

I found an article that had some details of kindle fire HD that made me know how much is this tablet really wonderful

check it right here http://goo.gl/Qm9Pbl

By: Pjay (Patti) Pender

Pjay (Patti) Pender — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 05:27:22 +0000

For all intents and purposes, 250MB of data on a tablet is NO DATA on the tablet. Personally, I’d probably buy it if instead they offered it with a month-to-month data plan on Verizon. I’d suggest they offer AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, but Verizon has the best 4G coverage in places I go. I’d personally rather pay a monthly fee and get a usable amount of data. I currently use about 6GB/mo of data (on Verizon) on my iPad, and I’m having to watch at the end of the month to avoid exceeding that.

That said, this does not strike me as “bait & switch,” and titling the article the way you did seems a bit dishonest. You dislike Apple’s model, and you feel Amazon has used it here. We get it.

By: Vid H

Vid H — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 01:37:10 +0000

Wow. This is one dumb, misleading article.

By: Danox

Danox — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 03:40:48 +0000

Amazon is sitting at 1.5% margins they have to make it up somewhere, hence over charge (bait and switch).

By: Kevin Fitchard

Kevin Fitchard — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:18:17 +0000

Hey Derek,

Smartphones do come subsidized, but not prepaid ones. Metro and Coolpad are even offering rebates to lower the cost of those $150 devices to $100. Even if we were to concede that Metro does offer a light subsidy on the device, a $130 modem would still account for more than half the cost of the device, which is ridiculous.