Amazon ‘Mayday’ Brings Instant Tech Support to Kindle Fire HDX Tablets

Apple has its vaunted Genius Bar, which makes it relatively simple for Apple customers to make appointments and bring in iDevices for tech support. Starting in next month, when Amazon.com releases its first nw Kindle Fire HDX tablet, the company will offer free and instant “Mayday” tech support, which can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year, according to Amazon.

Two new Kindle Fire HDX tablets, one 7 inches and the other 8.9 inches, will have Mayday buttons that give users instant access to “Amazon experts” who are available around the clock.

Mayday provides live, 24-hour video tech support, and the Amazon reps can walk you through new features or provide directions to help resolve tech issues. They can also take complete remote control of your device and fix a problem for you. And if your problem occurs in the middle of the night, you don’t need to change out of your pajamas – or your birthday suit. The Mayday techs cannot see you, only your tablet, according to Amazon.

The new feature is clearly aimed at new tablet users or consumers who don’t consider themselves tech savvy. And it one-ups Apple’s Genius bar service because it can be accessed instantly whenever you need help. However, Kindle HDX users with serious tech issues will still likely need to send their devices off to Amazon for repair or replacement. And Apple customers can just bring their devices into an Apple store for repairs.

Amazon Mayday represents a new level of the consumerization of IT; it brings enterprise-like remote tech support to any and all Kindle HDX users. And it’s the first service of its kind available on a consumer-centric tablet, at least that I know of. The value of the service will obviously hinge on the efficiency of the Mayday techs. Amazon says most “Maydays” will be answered within 15 seconds.

The new 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX Android tablet is expected to ship on October 18, and the 8.9-inch version should ship on November 7. The new Kindle tablets have a number of noteworthy hardware features, including high-resolution HD displays; quad-core 2.2GHz Snapdragon processors; 2GB of RAM; sleek magnesium unibody design; and Wi-Fi and LTE versions (AT&T and Verizon Wireless). And Kindle Fire HDX users with the company’s Prime service can watch Amazon Instant Videos offline.

But it’s the Mayday button and services that are most notable about the upcoming tablets.

Learn more about Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HDX tablets on the company’s website.

AS

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