-Motorola Xoom, Blackberry Playbook, the Samsung Galaxy tab, I could go on.
None of them have been able to touch the iPad, but now with Amazon introducing the Kindle Fire for a much lower price, it looks like Apple has got themselves a game.
I'm Brian Cooley with the top 5 differences between the Kindle Fire and the Apple iPad.
Number 5: Media.
Amazon versus iTunes.
This one is kinda messy.
Now, both these companies offer you a lovely online store with music, video, e-books, apps, and there are far more apps for iOS and iPad specifically, but other than that, many of more that you care about.
iTunes has an ala carte video experience while Amazon will give you 3 video streaming if you have an Amazon prime account, which offers you other benefits like free shipping on many things you buy from Amazon, which brings us to shopping.
Amazon has it.
Apple doesn't.
The Fire is the first tablet with a baked in mall for everything from tool, to toys, to [unk].
Number 4 is storage.
8 gigabytes on the Fire (that's it) versus 16, 32, or 64 on the iPad.
Amazon says you won't need more than 8 because they'll house so much of your Fire content on their cloud serves.
Well, Apple also has a new cloud back-in called iCloud, but theirs is set up differently to make you want a bigger device
by constantly syncing all your stuff to it.
Can you guess which company makes its revenue by selling hardware?
Yeah.
If you wanna keep a lot of video in particular on your tablet, the iPad's your boy.
Number 3 is the wireless data connection difference.
See the Fire is only Wi-Fi.
The iPad has that and also the option of 3G.
In fact, Wi-Fi is fine.
Well, except when you just can't find a hot spot, or get the code, or get to the log-in page for the hotspot,
or jump on someone's unsecured hotspot, or when you fall for the free public Wi-Fi thing, it's all an up-to-drive unit brink which can be sort of fun except when you can't even get on Wi-Fi to Google a damn bar.
The 3G option on the iPad can solve a lot of hassles and save your sanity, but it does wretched the cost way up and that's exactly what the fire sets out not to do.
Number 2: Size and weight.
The Kindle Fire is 7 inches and 14 ounces.
The iPad, a 10-inch device and 21 ounces, well over a pound.
This difference alone threatens to make our entire comparison today look like apples and oranges.
The Fire will fit in a large pocket.
The iPad in your trunk unless you drive a mini.
You really feel that weight difference when you use the iPad as an e-book reader, but you'll probably feel the Fire's smallness when sharing photos or sharing a movie.
Believe the rumor that a 10-inch Fire is on the way.
Before I get you to the number 1 difference between the Fire and an iPad, here are 5 differences between them I wouldn't lose any sleep over either because they're of low usage if you do have this gadgetry or because the 2 devices are so difference in price, you can't expect them to have all the same stuff.
Okay, the number 1 difference between the Kindle Fire and an iPad is the price.
The fire is 199 versus 499 to 829 for an iPad 2. For the money you save over a Fire over even the cheapest iPad,
you could also buy yourself an iPhone and still have 100 bucks left over to drink bourbon when you can't find Wi-Fi.
Now, price alone is no way to choose between 2 tech products, but these guys are close enough in the basic mission that you can use that as a yardstick.
The bottom line for most people is does the tablet have web, e-mail, and a screen bigger than my phone.
The Fire answers yes to all of those at a price that spells impulse buy instead of buh-bye.
Okay, before you buy either of these guys or any tablet, make sure you check out our reviews and watch our videos on these and all the rest of them in this fast-moving sector.
Tablets are the kind of thing.
It's also nice to get in your hands to try before you buy.
Check out our tablet review at cnet.com, our tablet videos at cnettv.com, and more top 5s like this at top5.cnet.com.
I'm Brian Cooley.
Thanks for watching.
