Amazon Fire Tablet vis-a-vis Apple iPad

Amazon released three new tablets on Thursday, a 7-inch Fire tablet and 8-inch and 10-inch Fire HD tablets.

The 7-inch Fire tablet has been priced at $50 and claims to be twice as durable that the latest Apple iPad. Its specifications include a 1.3 GHz Quad-core processor, 8 GB storage which is expandable to 128 GB, VGA front camera and 2MP rear-facing camera with 720p HD video recording.

Moreover, the hardware is thin and light and looks solid enough. There are a whole lot of extra features that the company has packed in, including an updated UI, quick reading software and On Deck – a background tool that keeps the tablet up to date with Prime content.

The price tag of $50 considerably lowers the barrier to purchase, making it almost an impulse purchase. According to IBTimes, Amazon is betting that similar to its Kindle e-reader, millions of people will look at the low price and think that it’s worth taking a risk.

However, comparing the Fire tablet to iPad seems a little far-fetched. Apple offers a premium device and experience at a relatively high price with high margins, earning profit from both hardware and content. The new Fire tablet is no match for the iPad in terms of either the build quality or the amount of tablet-optimized apps available. While a lot of people buy Amazon’s inexpensive Fire tablet, the real challenge for the company will be to keep them long enough to sell them mega-content.