

Why Amazon Can't Win a Tablet Price War Against Google - vmyy99
http://www.pcworld.com/article/252969/why_amazon_cant_win_a_tablet_price_war_against_google.html

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phamilton
I'm still not following the argument. Google producing tablets is a positive
externality for Amazon. The Amazon app store, Amazon MP3 store, and Kindle app
run great on any android tablet. The Amazon Fire was the catalyst of the sub
$200 tablet revolution.

As far as subsidizing the tablet further, my guess is that Amazon Prime
subscriptions will subsidize all Kindles. If you are a Prime member, you get
to buy 1 Kindle a year at a subsidized price. Stats have shown Prime members
to buy more things from Amazon.

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shuzchen
Is it just taken as fact that Amazon is losing money on each Fire sold? Last I
remember, there was a device tear-down that priced the components at slightly
over the retail price, but I wouldn't have said that was definitive proof that
Amazon was losing money. And even so, they're still producing and shipping
Fires, which means they've had time to improve the production efficiency and
bring down costs.

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kbutler
TL;DR: As tablet prices fall, Amazon won't be able to subsidize the tablet
price in expectation of digital purchases by the increasingly frugal tablet
purchaser.

Interesting assertion, but I'd bet on Amazon knowing their numbers better than
Mike Elgan (who? the author of the article).

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ef4
It's hard to see the downside for Amazon here. If other manufacturers started
selling great, cheap tablets, so much the better for Amazon. That's more
people with easier access to Amazon's media empire.

