For those who feel that the iPad has been all the rage for way too long, they might be happy to learn about a possible rival in the name of the Kindle Fire. While predicted sales for the iPad next year are said to reach 50 million globally, there has been some twittering that Amazon’s Kindle Fire may just be up there too.
Nice Gadget, Nice Price
First of all, what might tip the Kindle Fire over the scales in temptation value is its nice price. In America, the iPad sells for close to $800 and in Britain, it is around $700. Both of these are quite hefty figures when you then take a look for the anticipated Kindle Fire price of around $300. So the question being asked though is if the Kindle Fire is such a cool gadget, on a par with the iPad, how can it be sold for so much less money? Apparently this is because there is a good chance that Amazon will be making a loss of around $50 on each device it sells, as according to a recent article in the British newspaper, The Telegraph, it “sees the Fire simply as a means to the end of selling digital music, films, apps and games.” On the other side of the spectrum is the Apple company which, according to analyst Gene Muster, is “monetising the hardware up front with a 30pc-plus gross margin on the iPad.”
Kindle Fire: The Edge
The next question being asked is, what edge does the Kindle Fire have? According to Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, the Kindle Fire is more than just a tablet, it is “an end to end ecosystem” which enables users to buy extremely large amounts of content. Well, whatever it is, it must be doing something right since on the first day orders were being taken, according to eDataSource, a staggering 95,000 were made. Although that is less than the 300,000 iPad orders made on its first day of going to market, it is still a force with which to be reckoned especially given the fact that those making the order knew that shipping will not being for another six weeks. This fact leads one to believe that the first day ordering figure would have been higher if customers knew they were getting it straight away. In other words, it is thus likely that way more orders will be made between now and November 15 (the expected shipping day) which will in a sense count as first day shipping numbers.
It seems Steve Jobs may just have to think of a counter product to the Kindle Fire, or at least a counter price.
