Though the public’s reception of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPad is pretty enthusiastic, we may not be giving credit to their best achievement: Making tablets that are little more than marketing tools.
Leo Babauta of Mnmlist puts forward the idea that the big names in tablets have a lot to offer but, at the core, they’re intended to hock more purchases and put the consumer in the direct line of advertising fire. Mnmlist acknowledges the usefulness and convenience (“… these are very very useful devices, I’ll admit.”), but goes deeper to take a look at what we do with tablets and what it means:
But once you get one, what’s the first thing you do? You go to buy some content. Because at their heart, these are content devices, and they come loaded with a little content but not nearly enough to last a day. So you buy books, and this is Amazon’s main goal with the Kindle, and it is wildly successful. The Kindle might cost you $79 (or a bit more), but you’ll spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on books.
He goes further to look at the iPad, which shills movies, music, TV shows and more (and potentially racking up a higher bill at that). It comes across as a bit of a cynical read, but it’s not without basis in fact: Each tablet is not just geared for consumption, but is even marketed to the buyer by flaunting how easy it is for you to buy yet more product after you’ve already got the one Amazon or Apple are trying to sell you. “I am not disparaging anyone who has bought or received these devices,” he says. “They are useful and attractive. But let’s acknowledge their true purpose. “
Source: Mnmlist
