This Silk browser could be the "killer feature" of the Kindle Fire... something that allows it to really compete in the tablet space. It'll be interesting to really see how well it works in the real world and what the form factor of the Fire feels like.
I disagree. It is a good step for browsers everywhere, and hopefully will do more to push other browsers to use split processing, but the Fire will capture a new market of price-minded consumers who would never pay over twice as much for an iPad. Like Bezos said, it's all about bringing that level of product to a lower level price range.
If browsing (and thus all web-apps) are much faster than on the iPad, it will push the state of the art... security (https) be damned.
So to me there's two parts of introducing new technology that every group has to address: the technical advances and the policy around the new technology for consumers. Amazon is obviously doing a good job to help the technical side of it, but so far I think they're failing on the policy. They haven't mentioned the ability to shut off the split processing or use a different browser, and the answers to their privacy FAQs on privacy on their website are totally evasive. I think they're going to find themselves in a world of hurt if they don't start being more open about their policies, but who knows, it may end up not mattering to the masses.
I agree with this. Imo, this is a good step for web browsers.
This is a temporary move, when 4G becomes widely available in a couple of years or even six months from now, in some countries web optimization via cloud computing will become a trivial.