Amazon launched the Kindle Fire in late 2011. While they named it Kindle, it is far from being the e-reader that former Kindle users were used to. A more accurate name for this gadget is a touchscreen tablet. A Kindle Fire is closer to an iPad than its Amazon family member, the Kindle Reader.

The Kindle Fire is a must buy if looking for a tablet with an extremely reasonable price. The affordability of the Fire made it a huge bestseller for the 2011 holiday shopping season. Amazon called the Fire the most successful product it has ever launched. It has sold millions of units and continues to sell well.
 
The issue with many Kindle users who owned older Kindles is they thought the Fire was more closely an upgrade from their current Kindle e-reader, and this is not the case. While the Fire has an e-reader program built in, it differs radically from what long time Kindle users were used to. One major difference is that the Fire is backlit and reading on it strains the eyes easily. Other Kindles use e-Ink technology so the screen looks like a book and has no backlight so strain on the eyes in a non-issue. Kindle Fire buyers were selling their old Kindles in anticipation of the Kindle Fire and were sorely disappointed they let their old Kindles go. Some bought an older Kindle in addition to the Kindle Fire to replace their old e-readers and were none too happy about it. The consensus is the Kindle Fire is not a substitute for older Kindles. People who bought the Fire use it for other purposes and still read on the older Kindles.

The Kindle Fire is a must buy if the purpose is to surf the web, play games or watch movies. The capabilities of the Fire as a touchscreen tablet, for the price, is hard to beat. It has internet on the go setup allowing users to connect to wireless routers and hotspots, so there are no monthly data plans involved, like the iPad comes along with. With a good wi-fi connection the new browser, called Amazon Silk, has reportedly been showing good results. 

Many Kindle Fire users who have a Kindle 3G want 3G connection capabilities on the Fire, but that does not seem likely. Whispernet is the free 3G on a Kindle 3G and remains free because Kindle book downloads are very small. The Fire streams high volumes of data and if there is a 3G version in the future, it will have to be paid 3G, not free. This defeats the purpose of the Kindle Fire's success being that the price point is so low, it makes it affordable to the masses.

People who are looking for a touchscreen e-reader with no backlighting would be better suited to the Kindle Touch. Those who like their text-to-speech feature should avoid the Kindle Fire as it is not available on its initial launch, which caused a firestorm of complaints. Fire users are forced to use Audible.com to have books read aloud and many are not happy about it. Text-to-speech is a feature on many books for the Kindle, even free books, but only the older Kindles can deliver it.

The Kindle Fire is a must buy if the intent is to get a full featured touchscreen tablet at a low price, with no monthly data plan commitments. For those looking for an e-reader, a Kindle that is strictly an e-reader such as the Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX  or the Kindle Touch, is the way to go.