I'm so pleased with this purchase. I was looking at the Ninja, which is a bit more expensive, when I saw an infomercial about the KitchenAid Diamond blender. It has vortex blade action, which means that it pulls your ingredients down from the top. That means I don't have to be bothered with going through th top of the blender while it's in use, in an effort to help the blender BLEND! And, as an added bonus, I happened to get mine with one of Overstock's bonus coupons! It subtracted a sizable amount from the already low price! Parenthetically, the coupon's are work it, guys!
This blender takes ice cubes from my ice maker, and turns them into snow! So, there is no problem with blending frozen fruit. It's just a great buy, and a great blender. I'm so glad I went with KitchenAid and not that $200 Ninja!