Actually, I am surprisingly enamoured by the photos of the 7" in an adult's hands. It is pleasingly small-but-not-tiny.

There's also all kinds of reasons to promote the Fire in hands of children. Unlike regular geeky gadgets, Amazon is targeting women just as much as men, and you can market to mothers via their children. Plus, if you can get your products into the hands of children, you are establishing an entire generation of future customers. That's why Microsoft et al cut students and Universities such massive discounts on software and hardware.

Full-color children's books is also a distinguishing selling point for upgrading over the black-and-white Kindle.

I'm guessing they show it in smaller hands so that the device appears larger.

Your tablet can never be a replacement for your laptop. Period.

Hmm I'm not so sure... My iPad can replace my laptop for basically everything but work. Web browsing, listening/browsing/buying music, twitter et al, emails, games, books, movies/tv shows, etc, etc.

"My iPad can replace my laptop for basically everything but work" - so I guess my point stands. I was trying to argue against OP's point that all these things "Web browsing, listening/browsing/buying music, twitter et al, emails, games, books, movies/tv shows, etc, etc" can be done on a Playbook too.

Ok, fair enough.

I thought what you were trying to argue was "Your tablet can never be a replacement for your laptop. Period."

That really depends on what you're using your laptop for. For some people it can.