Why are the Kindle Fire tablets cheaper than most other name-brand tablets?

If it's simply a difference in processing power, is it safe to assume the Fire is good enough for my mother-in-law who reads books and plays soduku and Candy Crush level games? Will it work consistently, last a couple of years, etc?

Looking primarily at the 8", 16gb, Fire 8. Also, looking at other variations including the Fire 7.

Got a Fire HD 8 tablet for my son for Christmas. It was $50 and to be honest it's a pretty good little tablet. I was able to download the google play store on it (took about 20 minutes and there are step by step instructions online). He uses it for educational games and YouTube. I was skeptical but for $50 it was worth the gamble. I did a web browser speed test vs my iPad Air 2 and it was actually faster. The screen is obviously not as good but I paid $6-700 for the iPad. For web browsing and games (especially for a mother-in-law or child) it's a no brainer. Plus the fact they are very durable and can withstand drops pin hard surfaces without breaking the screen.

Same here. My kids each have one and they've been great. My daughter's actually died right around Christmas. Inconvenient timing as we were about to go on a loooong roadtrip, but for the price it did us pretty well for 4 years. I think we paid $100 back then. Haven't replaced it yet but will do so soon with another kindle.

They are cheaper because:

A)It uses Fire OS. This is a very simple (and locked unless you root) media driven OS. Comes nowhere near functionality of Android or iOS.

B)They aggressively price (And get a net loss on each device) because they are webways into the monster that is the Amazon ecosystem. You will purchase further content and product from Amazon with it. I remember reading something years ago that the overwhelming majority of Fire users purchased additional content past the initial device itself.

That being said, I am an Amazon junkie myself and have been immersed in their ecosystem almost from the beginning. The Fires are awesome devices, for what they do. I sold my last one but will probably get a new one next black friday. Because reasons.

Yep, they sell these at a loss to get you to buy content from Amazon. The innards aren't on iPad or flagship Android levels, but for light gaming, reading, watching videos they're more than enough to do the job well.

heddleston said:

---

Yep, they sell these at a loss to get you to buy content from Amazon. The innards aren't on iPad or flagship Android levels, but for light gaming, reading, watching videos they're more than enough to do the job well.

---

This!

I've had mine since shortly after they were released (first generation, not HD). I mainly use it for reading and music streaming (Pandora) but have also used it for web surfing, streaming video (YouTube) and some games. Still going strong after almost 7 years of use.

I appreciate the responses. That's very helpful.

We bought my daughter a Fire tablet a couple of years ago for her to play some learning games on. It was only an 8 gig, so we bought her and her brother new ones for Christmas with expandable memory, and they love them. I also like being able to set up certain time limits in the profiles to keep them from using it too much.

It's probably great for what she'd be doing with it.