Kindle Fire isn’t an Android tablet, it’s an Amazon tablet

Kindle Fire, the latest entry to the tablet world, is a success by any standards. If projections are to be believed, 6 million Kindle Fire tablets will be sold just this quarter. There are few quirks to be sorted but Kindle Fire is a a smashing success for a tablet which is not an iPad.

Everybody is too busy celebrating it as Android’s success. There’s nothing wrong in celebrating Kindle Fire’s success as Android’s success. Except it isn’t. If it was Android which is driving the sales, the same thing should be true for umpteen Android tablets which came before Kindle Fire.

Was it the hardware? Kindle Fire doesn’t have anything on it which other Android tablets don’t already have. If it was pricing then Lenovo Ideapad was priced similarly and I don’t see it flying lids off.

So it isn’t Android, it’s not the hardware and it is not solely the price, then what is it that is setting Kindle Fire apart?

Amazon.

(Kindle Fire – Amazon) = Nothing

When Amazon announced Kindle Fire and made a landing page for Kindle Fire, something stood apart. Unlike other Android tablets which talked about the dual core processors and the dual cameras, Amazon didn’t talk about the hardware. It talked about what Kindle Fire can do for you.

It’s not the apps, it’s the ecosystem stupid

Amazon wasn’t merely counting on the apps it has made available. It brought a whole ecosystem at your fingertips. Amazon focused on the number of movies you can watch, number of books you can read and the number of magazines you can subscribe to.

That had set Kindle Fire apart and catapulted it to the iPad league.

Which other non-iPad tablets made such an impressive and comprehensive launch?

Now this isn’t a feat which a HTC or Samsung could have pulled off. This is something which only Amazon could have pulled off.

If launching a tablet for HTC is a means of survival, launching a tablet for Amazon is a logical next step.

In the new silky world of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Android is a mere foot note. And that’s the real meaning of Android’s openness. That’s what other tablet makers should attempt at if they still want to make tablets. Make Android a foot note and build the rest.