Some may want to reconsider their proclamations that Amazon's Kindle Fire was an iPad killer. As it turns out, some consumers are beginning to feel as though they didn't get their money's worth no matter how much less expensive Amazon's tablet device is than Apple's product.
According to a New York Times piece, Kindle Fire owners have registered a list of complaints on the Amazon site including:
- Pages are taking too long to load
- There is no external control for volume.
- The touch screen is clunky to use.
- The off switch is too easy to hit by accident.
- There is no way to prevent others from using the device.
Jakob Nielsen, who was called "one of the world's foremost experts on usability" by Bloomberg Businessweek, told the Times, that the Kindle Fire's performance was "disappointingly poor... I can't recommend buying it."
Amazon has responded to complaints with an announcement it would provide a software fix to make it easier to navigate with the device.
"Kindle Fire is the most successful product we've ever launched — we've already sold millions of units and we're building more to meet the strong demand," Kinley Pearsall, a spokesperson for Amazon, said in a statement. "As with all of our products, we continue to make them better for customers with regular software updates."
A Bloomberg News piece pointed out that while there are issues with the device, nearly 2,300 have given it five stars on the Amazon site. The Kindle Fire is expected to become the second best selling tablet device on the market in the fourth quarter, according to an LA Times report.