Why Amazon Kindle Fire will be a success

IMHO there will never be an iPad killer. *Ever*. That out of the way, the Amazon Kindle fire will in all likelihood be a winner. Here are my reasons

• Price - All said and done, the price matters a hell lot. If Kindle Fire is priced right around $250 it will sell well. There are a whole lot of people who cannot afford the iPad but need a good alternative and Amazon can plug that hole. It was ridiculous of everyone else to price their tablets anywhere close to the iPad and well some of them are already history
• Content - Content is the king and at this point of time apart from the Appstore, the only content worth consuming is from Amazon. They seem to have a sound strategy around ebooks, magazines and their own app store which will grow leaps and bounds once their devices start selling.
• Online sales - Some nifty offerings to people who buy content from Amazon can lead to a whole lot more of sales and i am sure Amazon will exploit that to the hilt. I do not believe that the tablet strategy will be independent of their other offerings (e.g Amazon prime, Music Streaming, Cloud Storage, Kindle reader will all be tightly integrated in the tablet and will be a seamless experience for the user)
• Distribution - They need to have stores around the world for them to really take off. This is a sore point for Amazon. They dont have the stores like Apple has and if they can work out a distribution strategy for non US/Europe countries (read BRICS), the price point will be a significant factor in ensuring the sales take off

 The next few weeks should clear the air. I don't own the iPad but not too far in the future, i see myself owning both the iPad and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

WD Live Hub Review - India

I bought a Western Digital (WD) Live Hub media streamer a month back. I got it from the Golcha shop on SP Road, Bangalore (www.golchhait.com/) for Rs 9500/-. It was a good deal becuase it seemed to mirror the prices in the US and about 3000 cheaper for the same box in Croma. I dont own an LCD TV as yet and was a bit apprehensive about Live Hub working with my old Philips 21 inch TV. I unboxed the unit, connected the power cables, powered on, put the ethernet cable from my wireless router to the Live Hub and voila! got the neat and clean Live Hub UI running with the network configured and ready to go. it was one seamless installation and i dint face a problem. Tried youtube and some internet radio stations and they work beautifully. i get lags on my laptop while watching youtube video's but have never experienced a buffering issue in the tonnes of video's i have watched so far. Every feature works neat and i only wish WD has more local content. They should bring bigflix and other local content as apps. having a blast of a time watching my favorite content on the Live Hub. The 1TB HDD that comes along with the Hub should last me for the next couple of years at least. 


The WD Live Hub is definitely value for money.

Amazon Android App Store in India

Amazon's android app store is now available for android users in India. Hope this signals the intentions of Amazon to launch amazon.com in India as well. A recent report suggested India being the 3rd largest economy and its time Amazon sat up and took notice.

 Interestingly the price point of Amazon tablet is something which would find a lot of traction in India as well. At 250$ or about <12,000 INR, the sub 35 year population in urban India will find it affordable and enticing. iPhones, iPads are still extremely pricey and not really affordable.

Things to buy in Japan (Updated)

Been to Japan after 4.5 years and although it still seemed to be the same place i have known, i found a few more things that one can buy and usually available only in Japan

• Harinacs Stapler - Its an amazing invention. Staples without pins. Buy it, use it and believe it (i guess its available on Amazon as well). its available in Tokyu Hands
• Pilot Frixion Ball Pens - Can erase the ink once written. Of course avoid them for legal documents. Available in Tokyu Hands
• Plastic Sheet Flower Vase - Got one in the shopping mall at Shinagawa station. Its a printed plastic sheet and can be filled with water. Once filled, the base expands and stands like a vase. Using it home and it looks pretty neat. Lots of designs availabl

Mail for Exchange with Nokia E63

I'm trying to use the Mail For Exchange utility on my new Nokia E63 and it doesn't see to work with my corporate exchange server. I googled a lot and couldn't find a good solution that would work seamlessly until i understood that its not going to be possible until the exchange server settings were changed. Blackberry devices work perfectly for the push email.

Nokia will eventually go to a paid setup for their messaging service, waiting eagerly for the service to be announced in India. Only then will i be able to check my official emails on my E63, till then i will have to do with the browser using a GPRS connection that Airtel provides.

My Nokia E63

Its been a long time since i blogged and 3 long years with my phone, a Z550i from Sony Ericsson. i finally made a move to a business phone and bought a Nokia E63. It was a no-brainer decision for me as this was the cheapest business phone available. 10-11K was the budget i had in my mind and this fitted the bracket perfectly. Im very impressed with its capabilities so far. I have configured Gmail, OviMail, Facebook, Twitter, Nimbuzz IM and found the going easy so far. The QWERT keyboard is quite convenient to use. The hitch so far has been that i havent been able to get the mail for exchange configured with my coprporate exhange servers.

I got the Airtel Weekly Unlimited GPRS connection enabled for Rs 140 (Weekly) and the speeds have been quite good. Yes it going to be costly but im waiting for Nokia to announce their paid messaging service with Airtel (Similar to Blackberry's). I hope it similar to what Airtel-Blackberry offer at Rs 299/- cause a couple of my friends picked up Blackberry phones and avoided a nokia precisely for the lack of push email. Sometimes i wonder what the fuss is..about push and pull. For me a pull client is good enough no?