anyone gonna git kindle fire?

[Fingolfin269]

Hrm it's $200 so I think I'll preorder one... why not?

And that's the rub here. If you can get the price right then people who may want to give it a shot will give it a shot. The main reason I haven't bought an iPad is because I don't want to drop $500 on something that may just get thrown under the bed and forgotten.

 

[darkewaffle]

At $200 I feel like this thing is going to go gangbusters. Above all people care about price, no matter how awesome or shitty your product is, price it well and it will sell; and this thing looks like an awesome deal at 40% the price of an iPad from a good company.

 

[Pliablemoose]

The cheapest MSRP 10" android tablet is $400, which is put out by a company with poor brand recognition. If Amazon put one out at $300, it would be a whole new ball game.

I agree, but some of the posts were getting to the Nexus One level of hype. Amazon's entry into the tablet market is going to be a game changer.

iPad on the high end where no offerings are getting any traction, Amazon on the bottom, and the market is pretty well boxed in...

 

[mshan]

Someone on CNBC said Amazon was probably losing $50 on each Fire, while Apple has 30% profit margin on iPad.

 

[ViRGE]

Someone on CNBC said Amazon was probably losing $50 on each Fire, while Apple has 30% profit margin on iPad.

Yeah, they were referencing Gene Munster. He's not the most accurate analyst, but IIRC his BoM estimates have never been seriously disputed. So they're probably in the ballpark.

 

[ponyo]

Someone on CNBC said Amazon was probably losing $50 on each Fire, while Apple has 30% profit margin on iPad.

No way Amazon is losing $50 per tablet. Until proven otherwise, I still say Amazon is still making profit from Fire hardware. It does look good for Amazon to have everyone say they're losing money on the tablet. "Wow, Amazon is losing money on this tablet so it's a great buy and a bargain!" Good perception to have when you want to sell a product.

HP lost money on each Touchpad sale. Amazon is not losing a cent.

 

[JD50]

I pre-ordered 2, one for me and one for the wife. Once my wife saw that it was only 7 inches she changed her mind, said that was too small. She didn't like the size of the Kindle Fire either, zing!

 

[Bateluer]

No way Amazon is losing $50 per tablet. Until proven otherwise, I still say Amazon is still making profit from Fire hardware. It does look good for Amazon to have everyone say they're losing money on the tablet. "Wow, Amazon is losing money on this tablet so it's a great buy and a bargain!" Good perception to have when you want to sell a product.

HP lost money on each Touchpad sale. Amazon is not losing a cent.

Would have to agree. The Fire probably costs Amazon either about 200 dollars, or slightly less. Probably know more after it ships and we get an iFixit teardown.

 

[ponyo]

Does this thing have GPS? I'm assuming no since you can't use Google Maps or Navigation. 7" is perfect for GPS.

 

[Deeko]

Someone on CNBC said Amazon was probably losing $50 on each Fire, while Apple has 30% profit margin on iPad.

Well, sure. Internally they are very similar hardware. The iPad has a big bigger screen, a bit more storage, but otherwise, similar SoC, memory, etc. Yet Apple sells it for $500, not $200. Whether Amazon is losing money, breaking even, or barely profiting...if course Apple is making more per unit. Amazon is banking on the content sales.

 

[Bateluer]

Does this thing have GPS? I'm assuming no since you can't use Google Maps or Navigation. 7" is perfect for GPS.

Not seeing it listed on the spec sheet on Amazon's site. Seems like most people would just use their phone anyway.

Noticed something too.

Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible (Audible Enhanced (AA, AAX)), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, WAV, MP4, VP8.

No epub? Converting to PDF or MOBI is easy enough, for someone with technical knowledge, but beyond the masses.

 

[Dulanic]

Not seeing it listed on the spec sheet on Amazon's site. Seems like most people would just use their phone anyway.

Noticed something too.



No epub? Converting to PDF or MOBI is easy enough, for someone with technical knowledge, but beyond the masses.

Not surprising, Kindle doesn't support it either. They want to push kindle books more than others.

 

[Deeko]

Kindles have never supported ePub.

 

[ponyo]

Not seeing it listed on the spec sheet on Amazon's site. Seems like most people would just use their phone anyway.

Not if you're one of the millions Galaxy S owner.

That saves Amazon more dough.

RIM is by far the biggest loser in all this. They had placed lot of hope on the Playbook. They blotched the launch and now Fire will kill it.

 

[preslove]

I agree, but some of the posts were getting to the Nexus One level of hype. Amazon's entry into the tablet market is going to be a game changer.

iPad on the high end where no offerings are getting any traction, Amazon on the bottom, and the market is pretty well boxed in...

iPad at the high end, Amazon at the low end... maybe MotoGoogle at the low end, and maybe Windows 8 at the low end. Google and Microsoft may eventually fail, but they'll be around for a few years and will have their chance to get something going.

The companies that are well and truly screwed are Asus and Acer. MotoGoogle and and Microsoft have the size and cash on hand to "flirt with red ink" front and try to make a profit later. Asian hardware manufacturers don't.

Barnes and Nobles is kind of screwed, too.

 

[preslove]

Does this thing have GPS? I'm assuming no since you can't use Google Maps or Navigation. 7" is perfect for GPS.

Not only does this not have a GPS, but it doesn't even have google maps.

 

[Deeko]

Not only does this not have a GPS, but it doesn't even have google maps.

Bing is available from the Amazon app store though, so you're not completely mapless.

 

[AstroManLuca]

The device that just got killed is the iPod Touch. And if the 10" tablet has a camera or two, the iPad will finally have a serious competitor.

Wow, I hadn't even thought about that. The cheapest iPod Touch is the 8 GB for $229, making the Fire $30 cheaper despite having a 4x larger screen.

And yes, a $300 10" tablet (that is not a shitty Chinese knock-off) would really shake up the tablet market.

 

[Fire&Blood]

iPad on the high end where no offerings are getting any traction, Amazon on the bottom, and the market is pretty well boxed in...

Even if Fire takes off, neither is safe forever.

Tablets can't make an impact with specs, design and hardware alone, ipad 2 is immune to that. Pricing is crucial for the low end, content for high end. The most likely way to challenge the high end tablet market would be if Sony released a Play tablet and launched a PS2 titles market to strengthen the tablet's ecosystem while providing exclusive, desirable content.

 

[masterxfob]

if i buy the Fire, what am i supposed to do with my NC?

 

[zerocool84]

Someone on CNBC said Amazon was probably losing $50 on each Fire, while Apple has 30% profit margin on iPad.

As I always say, getting more people locked into your ecosystem is more important and eventual money maker than making money on each device. That's Google's strategy and that's Amazon's strategy as well.

 

[Deeko]

Jeff Bezos <3's me:

 

[Dulanic]

Jeff Bezos <3's me:

I wish that I could see how much me and the wife have spent /w Amazon but it is probably over 15K at this point. We even order our toilet paper on Amazon.

 

[hendermd]

I wish that I could see how much me and the wife have spent /w Amazon but it is probably over 15K at this point. We even order our toilet paper on Amazon.

You can via download order history in your account section. (it's in spreadsheet format)

 

[Mopetar]

As I always say, getting more people locked into your ecosystem is more important and eventual money maker than making money on each device. That's Google's strategy and that's Amazon's strategy as well.

Amazon's lock-in isn't very good though. Their music is DRM free and they have a Kindle app for other Android and iOS devices. But this doesn't matter because they don't care about you buying more hardware. They want you to buy their digital goods. I'm sure they'd sell movies DRM free if they could get the studios to agree. Amazon wants to be the Wal-Mart of the internet where they have the widest selection at the lowest prices.

Apple has the opposite strategy. They want to make a ton of money on each device and have enticing content to get people to buy those devices. Because their apps and most of their media content (music being the exception) are exclusive to their devices, they have a much easier time keeping people in their ecosystem. They want to have content only to sell more hardware and if they could get away with selling the hardware without having the content, they probably wouldn't have it.

Google's strategy doesn't care about selling devices or digital content. They only want to know what content you're looking for and buying. They subsidize all of their other services as a method of competing with other companies that might prevent them from getting that information. Android was purchased to protect the mobile space from Windows Mobile; Google+ was made to protect Google from Facebook becoming an ecosystem unto itself; Chrome was made so that Microsoft (or Mozilla) couldn't lock them out of browser searchers. Everything they've done has been a reaction to other companies who might be in a position to lock them out of acquiring information they can sell to their customers.