After months of speculation, Amazon unveiled its new tablet this morning, the $199 Kindle Fire. Smaller and cheaper than Apple’s iPad, the Kindle Fire has a 7-inch display and runs on a heavily customized version of Google’s Android operating system. For a feature breakdown, visit Amazon Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2 vs. Nook Color: by the numbers.

Amazon’s focus is on media consumption — the Kindle Fire pulls together all of Amazon’s media services from the cloud, including 18 million digital books, movies, songs, magazines, apps, and games. The device is designed to tap into all of the digital media products and services Amazon has been building for the past few years: Amazon Web Services, Instant Video, Kindle Books, Amazon’s MP3 music store, cloud storage, and Android app store.

Priced at less than half the $499 starting price of an iPad, the Kindle Fire aims to undercut Apple’s popular tablet, which has sold 28 million units since its 2010 debut. ”The price is shockingly low,” Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also unveiled a new version of Amazon’s classic e-ink Kindle, now called the Kindle Touch, which will start at $99.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around Amazon and Apple online.

Amazon vs. Apple buzz

Amazon chatter spiked past Apple today following the announcements. Kindle chatter (purple) spiked up near iPad (green) levels today as well.

Content breakdown

Amazon and Kindle Touch are being heavily blogged about today. More than 51% of Kindle Touch mentions came via blogs this morning, while 83% of iPad mentions came via Twitter.

Amazon sentiment

Conversations around Amazon are currently 84% positive.

Apple sentiment

Despite excitement around Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5 announcement October 4, overall conversations around Apple are currently 76% positive, 8% less positive than Amazon.

iPad sentiment

Conversations around the iPad are currently 86% positive.

Kindle Fire sentiment

Conversations around Kindle Fire are currently only 75% positive.

Kindle Touch sentiment

Conversations around Kindle Touch are 85% positive, 11% more positive than Kindle Fire currently.

Can Amazon Kindle compete with Apple iPad? There are plenty of reasons why the Kindle Fire is no iPad killer. What do you think?

Netflix Inc.’s move to separate its movie-streaming business and its DVD-by-mail service failed to soothe many customers’ anger over the company’s recent price increase. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced the split in a blog post Sunday night, saying the move was the impetus for a recent price increase that outraged customers and sent the company’s stock price plummeting. He apologized for not having given the explanation sooner.

Some are already saying Netflix is doomed. The future lies in streaming, which make Netflix’s core strengths — the DVD library and its logistics — irrelevant. And it’s competing against massive companies, including Apple and Amazon.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Netflix sentiment trend

Negative chatter, which was already steadily increasing since July thanks to Netflix previous price adjustments, has now surpassed positive chatter for the first time.

Netflix conversation topic cloud

Qwikster, the new name of a spin-off company Netflix created to handle all its DVD-by-mail service, is currently being mentioned in 36% of all Netflix conversations, and is 81% negative.

The move highlights the challenges facing even successful companies as they navigate the transition from old media to new media. Will you continue to use Netflix and/or Quikster?

Steve Jobs, the ailing tech visionary who founded Apple Inc., said he was unable to continue as chief executive of the technology giant and handed the reins to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Steve Jobs buzz

Steve Job mentions spiked more than 900% overnight following his resignation announcement.

Apple buzz

Apple buzz is at its highest point since the iPad 2 event in March.

How do you think the departure of Steve Job will affect the Apple brand?

Google announced today that it would acquire Motorola Mobility, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $12.5 billion. The acquisition, by far Google’s largest ever, turns Google (which makes the Android mobile operating system), into a full-fledged cellphone manufacturer, in direct competition with Apple

With the acquisition, Google gains a portfolio of 17,000 patents and another 7,000 patents pending globally. The word “patent” was mentioned 24 times on Google’s conference call this morning to discuss the deal. Google CEO Larry Page and other executives talked about how Motorola Mobility’s portfolio of patents will help protect google and its Android phone software from “anti-competitive threats” from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Google and Motorola buzz

Nearly 79% of conversations around Google and Motorola today have been positive.

Where does this acquisition leave other Android phone makers?

Typically anytime a watershed event happens, my Twitter stream is full of people chiming in with opinions. Amy Winehouse, Grammy Awards, Super Bowl…you can’t really miss a major event and expect to login to Twitter without a spoiler alert. So today when President Obama asked all Americans to “call, email and tweet their GOP lawmakers if you want to see #compromise,” I expected an overload of tweets on the subject. Surprisingly, I saw very few. Then the @BarackObama account proceeded to post the Twitter handles of the GOP lawmakers in each state, so that Twitter users may voice their opinions to the people in charge. Still not much activity in my stream.

In other news, Apple now has more cash than the U.S. Government.

We used Social Radar to analyze which was generating more chatter online.

Apple vs. The U.S. Government

Wow. iPhone and Apple are generating significantly more chatter than Obama and the compromise he asked Americans to tweet about.

Tweet mentions within Obama chatter

Despite the President’s plea and his staff’s diligent work to provide contact info for all 50 states, the word “tweet” only appeared in around 3% of all Obama mentions today.

Will the American public step up and make their voices heard on this important topic?

Last week Facebook attempted to create buzz about an upcoming announcement today, inviting people to an “awesome” event online. It didn’t take long for the news to leak that the event would focus around Facebook’s long-rumored video chat product.

Facebook unveiled today video chat powered by Skype, as well as group chat.

Facebook buzz

Overall chatter around Facebook today is about equal to its average for the month.

Facebook vs. Google buzz

Many called today’s announcement Facebook’s response to Google’s Google+ announcement last week. Overall chatter around Facebook still trails chatter around Google.

Facebook’s new Skype video chat feature continues the integration between Microsoft and Facebook, including Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which indexes Facebook’s social data. With Facebook’s entry into the video-chat market, they’ll be competing with Apple’s FaceTime, Google Talk and the new Google+ Hangouts.

Skype mentioned within 6% of current Facebook chatter

We measured the number of Skype, video chat and group chat mentions within Facebook conversations, as well as the number of “awesome announcement” mentions to determine whether the attempted hype helped create buzz. Skype is currently generating the most buzz within those topics, being mentioned in nearly 6% of all Facebook conversations online. The “awesome announcement” hype attempt did not appear to help generate significant buzz for Facebook.

What are your thoughts on the new Facebook features announced today?

Microsoft yesterday unveiled Windows 8, which includes a touch-optimized, tile-based main interface, melding the user friendliness of modern smartphones with powerful PC features like complete access to the file system, the ability to see more than one app at a time on screen, and desktop caliber apps.

Apple, on the other hand, is poised to announce the eagerly awaited cloud system iCloud during Monday’s WWDC, among many other new features and announcements (OS X Lion, iOS 5).

We used Social Radar to measure buzz around Microsoft Windows 8 to Apple iCloud, OS X Lion and iOS 5.

Microsoft Windows 8 vs. Apple iCloud, OS X Lion, iOS 5 buzz

Windows 8 is currently generating more buzz than Apple iCloud, iOS 5 and OS X Lion.

Microsoft vs. Apple buzz

Throughout the last 30 days, Apple has generated more chatter overall than Microsoft, despite a large spike for Microsoft around May 10 following the Skype acquisition.

Microsoft sentiment

Microsoft conversations are currently 65% positive, which is below the average 80% positive throughout the last month.

We will check back Monday following Apple’s WWDC with further analysis around Apple buzz.

Ad Age posted an interesting article Wednesday about all of the key executives running Facebook who used to work at Google. In fact, an estimated 358 current Facebook employees (out of 3,600) used to work at Google.

Perception is that Google has peaked and is headed for decline. And, according to the article, Google’s 26,000-person workforce creates the kind of bureaucratic slog that deprives creative minds of oxygen, forcing entrepreneurial execs to run for a breath of fresh air. The Googlers who run Facebook know the enemy all too well. Is Google primed for a fall?

We used Social Radar to measure chatter around Google and Facebook over the past 3 years.

Google vs. Facebook chatter

Our query produced interesting results. Since July 1, 2008, Google chatter has steadily decreased, while Facebook chatter has steadily increased.

With Google’s Eric Schmidt admitting at this week’s D9 tech conference in Los Angeles that as CEO he “screwed up” and was too busy to do anything about social media as Google’s CEO.

Google launched their +1 buttons for recommended content across the web today. But the +1 button only shows up for signed-in users of Google.com and only pulls social graphs from Buzz, Reader, Talk and Gmail. Until Google pulls in Facebook friends and Twitter followers, will the +1 button help them gain any traction?

News broke today that Apple will start its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with several important software releases: iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud service, as well as the next iteration of its desktop and mobile platform, Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5.

The really big announcement at this year’s June 6 WWDC will be iCloud, which is rumored to be Apple’s cloud service for music. Recent reports said that Apple has signed a licensing deal with EMI and was close to signing similar deals with Sony and Universal, which would pave the way for iCloud.

WWDC buzz

Chatter around Apple’s WWDC is already up 426%, still a week away from the conference.

WWDC sentiment

Conversations around WWDC are currently 83% positive. Steve Jobs is currently being mentioned in 11% of WWDC posts after speculation that he would participate in the keynote.

We will report back next week following the conference to break down the buzz.

Amazon.com’s one-day, 99-cent promotion of Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated second studio album, “Born This Way,” resulted in downloading delays on the Internet retailer’s website due to high volume, the company said Monday.

Amazon thanked users for their patience on its website and on Twitter. Consumers who ordered “Born This Way” on Monday would get the full album for the promotional price, a spokesman confirmed.

Amazon is buying “Born This Way” at the full wholesale price, around $9, from Lady Gaga’s recorded-music distributor and absorbing the cost of the discount. ”Born This Way” costs $11.99 or $15.99 on Apple Inc.’s iTunes Store, depending on whether buyers opt for the regular album or a deluxe configuration that includes eight extra songs.

Amazon sentiment

Conversations around Amazon spiked to 96% positive today.

iTunes vs. Amazon mentions within Gaga or Born This Way chatter

The promotion did seem to generate some buzz for Amazon. Amazon was mentioned in nearly 12% of all conversations around Gaga or “Born This Way” online yesterday.

Music distribution executives say that most weeks, Apple commands 90% or more of paid digital music downloads, while Amazon’s share of that market is typically under 10%. Keep an eye on sales figures next week to find out if the promo and increased buzz helped Amazon’s sales vs. iTunes.