When was the last time you saw a retailer go out of its way to malign a product it sells? If you hurry and click on Amazon.com, you will be able to see a homepage dedicated to the proposition of making the Kindle Fire HD look good and the iPad mini appear as though it is Apple's unscrupulous way of getting you to part with your money. (Technically, Amazon isn't selling the mini, although it does sell at least some Apple products directly as well as from third-party suppliers.)
The site, which includes the message "Much More for Much Less." also includes a quote from a Gizmodo article (sans link) that concludes the Kindle Fire HD is superior. That said, the author of the review is split on various attributes of the two tablets and makes recommendations for one over the other depending on a variety of criteria. As with most comparative reviews, a grain of salt needs to be sprinkled with each reading.
Apple's new product has clearly gotten the attention of Amazon, according to MarketWatch. Last week, the company sent out a survey to a small number of customers seeking to determine if they found the relative attributes of the Kindle Fire HD to be superior to those of the mini. It's a fairly standard research practice for consumer brands facing new competition.
"Maybe they want to get a sense of new features that would be of the most interest," consumer advocate Edgar Dworksy told MarketWatch.