Waiting for my Kindle Fire

I don’t know that I’ve ever been so happy to see $199 charged to my card three times.

I’ve ordered three Kindle Fires, one for me, my little sister, and my best friend. I am not an early adopter, not usually, and I originally convinced myself that I needed an iPad to read ebooks and my huge collection of PDFs. I do that occasionally but as anyone who has an iPad will attest, it’s not easy holding that thing up for long nor is it an especially great eReader. That said I love my iPad – almost as much as my MacBook Air which I lug around in my purse more often than not.

I own both Apple and Amazon stock, and I think that Amazon’s entrance into the tablet world is more about the ecosystem ala Apple. That’s primarily why I chose the Fire over the Nook even when it appears that the Nook is a better device, especially in terms of storage. It’s going to be very interesting watching Amazon use Prime (their $79/yr membership plan) to further strengthen their grip on people. No, Amazon doesn’t have Apple’s jen ne sais quoi. No, people are not going to lust after the Kindle the way they do the iPad… but what’s happening here is really interesting since Amazon $AMZN is now playing Apple’s $AAPL game.

Now on the surface it may seem like it’s the same game, actually it’s not. Apple’e ecosystem is designed to sell and serve it’s hardware (90+% of its business) while Amazon’s hardware exists to make sales simpler and more accessible; it’s purpose is to increase sales of books, movies, music, and apps.

Actually this post isn’t about the Fire nor the iPad, but rather the three books I am looking forward to reading on the device when it arrives (customized!) at my doorstep. I’ll let everyone else battle over why the Nook Tablet is a “better” device or why the cloud aspect of the Amazon offering is only going to make the Fire more powerful over time (if you have access to WiFi) and why neither is an iPad (they’re really not trying to be!). I am excited about a better e-reading experience. Hopefully I’ll get it with the Firex along with a few extra bells and whistles too.

Being a primarily a forex trader I especially want to read Michael Lewis’ “Boomerang“, although I understand that it’s largely composed of his Vanity Fair articles which I can read on my Fire as well. And when it comes to online reading, if the Fire has the Instapaper app that would be off-the-hook!

I am also looking forward to reading StockTwits’ own Peter L. Brandt’s “Diary of a Professional Commodity Trader“. Commodity futures were where I learned the most about trading from; they are my “roots” you could say. There’s not a day that goes by in my forex trading life that I am ever far from the U.S. Dollar Index, Dow, crude, gold, Continuous Commodity Index, and copper…I consider myself lucky that I came to forex after a decade as a futures trader.

And I’m looking forward to re-reading “Trend Commandments” by Michael Covel. In fact on the Fire I may even be able to watch his movie “Broke”.

But what would I be without a look at both AAPL and AMZN.

I’ll be a buyer of $AAPL when it trades lower towards 365. In fact the 200 period Simple Moving Average will be an initial entry point especially considering the previous support from October but don’t be surprised if Apple tests the August lows…and keep some powder dry if it does. Apples sans Steve doesn’t have the same mojo. 

I can’t help but think that the Fire/Prime/unlimited Cloud space combo has a certain “Apple-ness” to it and that’s a good thing. $AMZN could close the gap down and then hit the bear cave before finding support jsut below 200 (again) and that’s where I will be willing to step in too. There are expectations of possibly 5-million Fires being sold (wow!) but since Amazon doesn’t release these numbers, we’ll likely never know so how does the reaction to the run-up of the Fire’s release unwind when we don’t have these figures? 

 

“Shipping Soon”. I’ll be checking the front door irritatingly often between now and Wednesday…

Here’s a great article from Wired about Jeff Bezos and the “media service” he calls the Kindle Fire. Cool stuff. He may not have the panache Steve Jobs did but he is every bit the genius. 

 


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

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