
Amazon Kindle Fire: More Profitable Than Expected? - FluidDjango
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/01/18/amazon-kindle-fire-more-profitable-than-expected/
======
kinofcain
47% bought one as a gift, that worries me. It's similar to my own anecdotal
evidence from people I know who bought them: they have an iPad, but they
bought their kid/niece/nephew a kindle fire.

It seems like a lot of these are going to families as a 'second tablet'.

------
timwiseman
How does this handle reading e-books?

The article lists that as one of its main uses in the real work, but it seems
like it would be a dramatically worse experience than either paper or the
e-Ink kindles that came before the fire.

~~~
untog
This, IMO, is one of the real problems with both Amazon and B&N branding their
LCD tablet devices under the same brand as their eInk ones.

People don't seem to "get" it. The Fire/Tablet is more expensive, and so, must
be the "best". If all you want to do is read, the LCD devices are actually
_worse_ in both readability and battery life. But I don't see either
manufacturer doing a great job at explaining that.

~~~
timwiseman
I think you have a great point. I have an older kindle (odd to say that about
something I got less than 6 months ago...) that I think is fantastic as a
dedicated reader. I would pay for the Fire swiftly, if it was a better reader,
but the store models I have seen seem to be worse as dedicated readers.

------
jmslau
Their hardware cost will also come down as they achieve increased economies of
scale. Net net, the profitability of the Fire should increase over time.

------
steder
So when users purchase a device designed to consume amazon services they
consume more amazon services...

~~~
bproper
Yeah, nothing surprising here. By this logic, since most of the revenue comes
from ebooks, they should have stuck to selling normal Kindles.

I suppose app and streaming video revenue will grow over time.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Half were gifts. This is a crossover device, at least in grandma's opinion,
and she chose it over other pads. Even if its worse than a 'real Kindle', the
point is the Fire got a sale that probably would have been lost to a nook etc.

