GigaOM Pro

The first reviews of Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HD are in, and they’re…well, mixed would probably be the best way to put it. The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg was downright tepid on the device, calling it an improvement over the first generation Kindle Fire but still nowhere close to Apple’s iPad. The New York Times’ David Pogue was positively scathing in his review, noting, “The Fire HD has no camera on the back, no GPS navigation, no speech recognition, no to-do list or notes app. It trails the iPad in thickness, screen size, screen sharpness, Web speed, software polish and app availability. It can only dream of the iPad’s universe of accessories, cases and docks.” That’ll singe. Not every review was negative, however. At TechCrunch, John Biggs pointed out, correctly in my view, that the Fire is not really meant to compete directly with the iPad. Rather, it’s an extension of Amazon’s overall digital strategy, and in his view a pretty good one. The Verge calls it a “tidy package” if not quite “cutting edge.” As always, your mileage may vary.