Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

Amazon Uses Apple to Diss iPad Mini in Escalating Tiny Tablet Tiff

Amazon’s front page — one of the best marketing venues on the Web — is using the Apple brand name to tout how its own competing Kindle Fire HD is better than the new iPad mini.

As you can see above, it’s a little reminiscent of the old-Coke-and-Pepsi comparison advertising, with the online retail giant using a quote from a review of the recently launched Apple device from the Gizmodo tech site that reads, in part: “You’re using a worse screen in there, charging more and accusing others of compromise? Ballsy.”

Actually, the Amazon effort is, too, with a side-by-side comparison. Guess who wins in race criteria using screen quality, pixels per inch, ability to watch HD fare, speaker quality and, of course, price.

Lightness and thinness of the actual device — where Apple iPad mini is the clear winner — is not mentioned. It also has a significantly bigger screen and has many more apps.

In any case, it’s another effort by Amazon to put itself directly in front of the Apple iPad mini juggernaut, as it becomes available to consumers this coming Friday. So far, almost all preorders have sold out.

Interestingly, Amazon has yet to say how many Kindle tablets it has sold, while Apple has touted its sales of the popular devices — 100 million in two years.

But, in a statement to AllThingsD on Friday, an Amazon spokesman said that “Wednesday was the $199 Kindle Fire HD’s biggest day of sales since launch and up 3x week over week.” Apple announced the iPad mini on Tuesday.

No word yet from how Google’s next Nexus tablet — the search giant had to cancel that debut at a New York event tomorrow, due to Hurricane Sandy — feels about this widening war of weensie.

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google