The Kindle is hardly a business machine either, though. That doesn’t enter the equation here.

That’s a good point, in fact, you could buy a Kindle Touch 3G and a Kindle Fire and still save a lot of money. Still, I don’t think the iPad is history, if you’re not interested in the ultimate portability (many people use it just at home), the bigger screen is definitively a plus. Besides, it’s not nearly as powerful in term of storage, processing and graphical capabilities, they’re just aimed at different markets IMHO. Still, some people who might be considering buying an iPad even if its overkill for them, might now be well served with what the Fire offers, thus “stealing” a few sales from Apple.

What it’s definitively true, is that the Fire is the first tablet to really challenge Apple in terms of available digital content, at least in the US (and, perhaps, the UK, sadly, in the rest of Europe Amazon doesn’t offer so much digital content as in the US, in fact, the Fire as of today can only be ordered in the US), I really hope it succeeds there, I’d definitely like to see it available here in the EU. Global presence in terms of digital content is what Amazon lacks when compared to Apple, the Fire could be a great starting point to put a remedy to that.

As for the tablet itself, it might not be an iPad killer (I don’t see that coming any time soon), but it certainly looks like a sound alternative for those looking for a smaller, cheaper option. I think there’s many people out there who haven’t bought an iPad because it’s price and size is overkill, and this new 7” baby from Amazon might well be the answer to them if it truly comes out of the box as well equipped as it claims. Looks like a future winner to me.