
Leaked Sales Numbers Suggest Amazon Kindle Fire On Track To Outsell iPad - davidedicillo
http://www.cultofmac.com/120233/leaked-sales-numbers-suggest-amazon-kindle-fire-on-track-to-outsell-ipad-exclusive/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
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nirvana
Amazon is good at retail fulfillment, but they are absolutely brilliant at PR
based marketing.

I really think that journalists, when they are called by a PR agent for a
firm, should not report what the PR agent tells them as a "leak". "Leak"
implies that some employee let the information out against the express wishes
of their boss... but this is not what has happened here.

I'm familiar with the culture and organizational structure of Amazon. Only a
very small number of people in Amazon would have access to this information,
and none of those people would be where they are if they were the kind of
person who "leaked" information.

This is a plant.

It is a plant based on the first 5 days of sales of a new product.

A new product that had weeks and weeks of "leaks" including someone putting an
actual tablet in MG Sieglers hands. (Tell me it wasn't a PR rep or executive
in the company that did that...)

So, Amazon hyped up their new kindle for several weeks, then announced it, and
got a bump in sales of the new device right after the announcement.

I wonder how many fewer than average kindles they sold in the weeks prior to
that?

Then, cult of mac, a blog who regularly plays fast and loose with the facts,
compares those 5 days of sales-- after weeks of hype and right after the
announcement-- to the average rate of sales of the iPad, over a much longer
period, and concludes that the Kindle is "on track" to outsell the iPad.

Talk about picking only favorable data to fit your conclusion!

Also, shouldn't a device that costs half as much (and does far less,
naturally) outsell a more expensive device? Shouldn't you expect a toyota to
outsell a BMW, no matter how much extra value the BMW adds? Would you even say
the BMW and the toyota are in comparable categories?

~~~
ericabiz
"Would you even say the BMW and the toyota are in comparable categories?"

I would. They both get you from point A to point B. And for most people,
that's what matters.

You are missing the real point here. Most people aren't making a choice
between the Kindle Fire and the iPad. Most people are making a choice between
a Kindle Fire and some other non-essential purchase (like an extra couple
pairs of shoes.)

The Kindle Fire will blow open the market for tablets. It will appeal to an
entire set of the population that could not previously afford or justify a
tablet.

It will be very interesting to watch development in this space. You have
Amazon hitting Apple on the low end, and Microsoft gearing up to hit Apple on
the high end with Windows 8 tablets that run regular Windows programs. The
iPad is getting some stiff competition.

~~~
tobylane
You may get enterprise (and take-home-enterprise) windows tablets in the iPad
price area, but they'll be mostly cheaper, like Android tablets are generally
prices similar to the phones.

