i got the original kindle fire for christmas last year. i really like it. i read a ton of more with it. its nice having netflix/crunchy roll player, the comixology app (always wait for their 99 cent sales), i have an iphone too and of course the amount of games on kindle fire is way less but they have a lot of the big titles like the angry birds series, wheres my water, most gameloft games , most ea games (nba jam is fun), other games i like puzzle quest, rayman jungle, pinball arcade, league of evil.
its a nice little reader, lay around the house an browse the internet, play a few games, watch some videos machine. for me if a person wants an inexpensive tablet i would go for the fire or fire hd if they want to spend a lot more get the regular iPad.