The Kindle Fire's reasonable price, together with the potential of widespread Android app support, makes the device an enticing option, especially for families who want to give a tablet to the kids without having to blast through five bills. The Kindle Fire is clearly first and foremost an entertainment-consumption companion to Amazon's services. The ability to install apps and do anything more with the tablet--handling email, sharing photos, and the like--really feels like a secondary operation. At that point it makes me wonder whether the Kindle Fire is truly a "tablet" or just a content-playback machine with some extra smarts.

In many ways, the Kindle Fire isn't trying to beat the iPad or the Android-tablet masses at their own game. The Kindle Fire is doing its own thing, and going after a totally different audience.