Full Retail Price: Amazon Kindle Fire 7-Inch Tablet $199 (Normally $199)

You’re going to think we’ve gone off the deep end – we want to stress as much as we can that the tablet you are looking at in this post is at full retail price.  If you’re looking for a deal (on paper, that is – but we’ll get to that), then you’ll be sorely disappointed.

This Black Friday, you’ll be able to get the Kindle Fire at the following stores for the price listed:

• Office Depot – $199.99 (plus tax)
• Office Max – $199.00 (plus tax)
• Staples – $199.00 (plus tax)
• Toys R Us – $199.99 (plus tax)
• Walmart – $199.00 (plus tax)

Yes, you can get a deal at any of the stores in bold above for $0.00 less than retail price (or pay $0.99 extra from the other retailers) – but not to get into the details, Amazon will get it to you for $199.00 SHIPPED – which ultimately means you pay less when you buy right from the horse’s mouth.

Now, I could be a bit biased, but I’ve been a huge fan of Amazon for quite a while now (Google too – which Google’s operating system just happens to power this device – as all Android tablets).  Its a brave step for Amazon to introduce a tablet with a full retail price of $199 – especially when most reliable sources state they are losing money just on the cost to assemble it.  But this is where Jeff Bezos (Amazon’s CEO) knows how to run his business – Amazon is about content – and that’s what this Kindle is about.

Yes, Amazon seems to be banking on the fact that once you buy this Kindle you’re going to want to read.  Read what?  Kindle books of course!  And Amazon knows you’ll want to listen to music.  Listen to what?  Why, the songs purchased as MP3s right off their site and imported right to their cloud.  And finally Amazon knows  you’ll want to buy apps – the kind of apps you buy for just a few hundred pennies on their app store.  Yes – Bezos is making a calculated risk.  But coming from probably the only internet company that continuously posts profits year over year and is known as the largest store in the world – I think he knows what he’s doing.

So why do we put this on our site?  Because earlier we posted about a Blackberry PlayBook for $199.99 at Best Buy – as a great deal.  Because we all know tablets worth their weight in salt will be discounted to about this price.  So when we state that the Blackberry PlayBook is a great deal on paper (60% off), although the Amazon Kindle Fire is 0% off, you are still paying less for the Kindle Fire.

But let’s speak about some observations we have of the Kindle:

• The 7-Inch display is perfect for reading a book – The size is not too large which means you can get back to speed reading which larger tablets make more difficult
• All the apps you want are available – Sure, Amazon may have the final say on what goes on their app store, but maybe you’ll be spared the junk apps that no one cares about.  If there is an app worth its weight, you’ll be sure to find it on Amazon
• Typing on the tablet is like typing on a large phone – it feels just right in your hands and seems more natural than a larger, more bulky tablet
• It’s all about the cloud – We’re still not sure of all the angles on this one, but much of what you do is in “the cloud” (highly optimized, secure storage out there somewhere).  This means you don’t need 64GB memory.  Amazingly the browser itself somehow partly runs on the cloud as well.
• Your Amazon Prime (which many have for their FREE shipping) means FREE streaming of thousands of TV shows and movies to your Kindle Fire.
• A library is available for Amazon Prime users which means you get to check out one book for free per month.  I expect we’ll see this continually evolve as well into an even better (already awesome) program as time goes on.
• It’s a dual processor, blah blah blah – The reviews have been pretty amazing thus far.  The browser speed is keeping up with the big boys.  Plus they claim you can stream music while browsing the web or read books while downloading videos without issue.  As long as I can read, stream videos and music while playing Angry Birds at the same time (too much multi-taking if you ask me) then I guess I’ll be happy.  🙂

Have you made it this far? You may wonder how I know some of the information above.  Well, I’ve been saving up for a tablet (with my Swagbucks) for a while now and everything I’ve read about the Amazon Kindle Fire seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, especially when compared to the price of other tablets.  So, taking my SwagBucks we’ve been saving up and getting 2% back on my Perkstreet card for the remaining balance, I bought one when they came out.  And so far I have been extremely impressed (thus this post).

All I’ll say is that Amazon seems to be in the zone.  They really do.  And if you are looking for a tablet this holiday season, I would probably at least consider an Amazon Kindle Fire.  No, you won’t get it for 70% off, but at 0% off it seems like you’re getting a great deal for your money!

Click here to check out the Amazon Kindle.