[jrockway]

Companies need to stop copying Apple, because if they don't, every review will be tainted by why Apple did X better than they did. Apple might not have actually done X better, but they did it first, and people like what they already know. The comment about the unlock gesture is especially relevant; there is no need to stipe something across the screen to unlock a tablet. If people copy that, though, the reviews will inevitably compare it to Apple's implementation, and will like Apple's better. (Be it less lag, better color scheme, better font for "Slide to unlock", etc.) If they do something completely different, like a hardware switch, then everyone will be happy because it's the first time they've ever seen anything like that and the idea will be allowed to stand on its own merits.

The Fire is flawed from the start because it uses out of date software. If you are going to advertise something as Android, then people expect it to be good at Android. Look at Archos' Android tablets; dead because they kept it on 1.6 forever. (I will certainly never buy an Archos product again.) The solution is to not advertise it as having Android, even if you use Android behind the scenes. There are many Linux devices that don't claim to be Linux, and as a result, nobody ever cares that GHC 7.4 doesn't run on it; it's just a box that runs software that does stuff rather than being "a Linux box". (Hell, the original Kindle is a good example of this. Do you want an xterm on your Kindle? Nope! So you don't care that it doesn't have X11.)

Anyway, I guess I'm saying that the key to hardware design is expectation management. Be different so that you aren't compared to Apple. Underpromise so that you aren't compared to something you aren't.

[dr1z]

If you look at Amazon's own page for Kindle Fire, it does not list Android OS as a feature (with the exception of the Appstore but that predates Fire).

[jrockway]

Fair enough. But they obviously used Android, so people (including me) expect the tablet to compete with other Android tablets. That's the reason why I don't have one, even if I would only use the Amazon features. (I do own a Kindle, though, because it doesn't promise anything other than "buy books from Amazon.com and read them on an e-ink screen", and that's exactly what I want.)

[coderdude]

Apple has been telling us the key to beating them all along: Think different.

[bd_at_rivenhill]

Who cares about the reviews, building cheap ripoffs of Apple products is now a time-honored route to success, just ask Bill Gates.