Kindle Fire sales continue at Amazon as hype builds for Apple's next iPads

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
In recent weeks, Amazon has held a number of sales on its Kindle Fire lineup, and on Thursday the company's refurbished 8.9-inch model was discounted by $60, as the online retailer continues its efforts to carve away market share from Apple's iPad.

Kindle Fire


As Thursday's Goldbox Deal of the Day, Amazon is offering refurbished 16-gigabyte 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD models for just $179, or 25 percent off their regular price. The sale is also $90 less than the cost of a new model with "special offers."

The one-day sale also applies to the 32-gigabyte 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, which is available for $199 refurbished, or $70 off the regular price. A brand new 32-gigabyte 8.9-inch model has a regular price of $299 with Amazon's "offers."

Amazon's recent Kindle Fire sales come after the retailer failed to crack the top five tablet makers in the second quarter of calendar 2013. For that three-month frame, Apple was once again the market leader having shipped 14.6 million units, while Samsung, Asus, Lenovo and Acer all rounded out the top five.

Thursday's Goldbox sale is just the latest in a series of discounts Amazon has held in recent weeks and months for its Kindle Fire lineup. Typically, the discounts have applied to the smaller and less expensive 7-inch model.

For most of August, the entry-level 7-inch Kindle Fire HD was priced at $159 in a limited-time sale. That discount has returned temporarily a few times, according to price tracking data at Decide.com.

Meanwhile, the 16-gigabyte 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD was given a permanent price drop from $299 to $269 in March. Discounts in late July dropped the price of new models to as low as $215.

Amazon's Kindle Fire devices run a forked version of Google's Android operating system, with assorted services pointing back to Amazon instead of to Google. The company's profit margins on the devices are thought to be slim-to-nonexistent, with Amazon's aim being to make money on services attached to the tablets, such as video streaming and e-book sales.

It's expected that Amazon will release new Kindle Fire models this fall, when Apple is also apparently planning to launch updated versions of its market leading iPad lineup.

iPad mini


Apple's full-size iPad is expected to see a redesign this fall, with a new thinner side bezel and lighter weight, adopting traits from the popular iPad mini. And the iPad mini itself will also be updated, potentially with a Retina display, according to rumors.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities has also speculated that Apple could combat lower-cost tablets like the Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7 by continuing to sell the non-Retina iPad mini at a lower price this fall. He doesn't expect that new entry-level model to be considerably cheaper than the current iPad mini pricing strategy, starting at $329 for a 16-gigabyte model.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18


    Kindle "Fire-sales"


     


     


    Intended or not, I like that play on words.

  • Reply 2 of 18
    512ke512ke Posts: 782member
    I'm only half joking: I would not be surprised to see Amazon start giving away Kindle Fires for free along with a $25 Amazon gift certificate (good for any product except Apple's.)

    Hard to compete when your competitor is selling product at a loss. Amazon is the online Walmart.
  • Reply 3 of 18
    Want market shares ? Easy ! Sell at $0.01 ( no shipment charge) then market share will all be yours . Profit affected ? Never mind , Mr.market will dream amazon is only building infrastructure for It to have a brighter successful future .
  • Reply 4 of 18
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member


    Amazon is just cleaning house as they are soon to release an update too. Just like Apple's heavily discounted MacBook Retinas for the last 2 months. Nothing new here. Only diff is Amazon does the discounting themselves- Apple just lets all the resellers do the work for them. 


     


    BTW when I go on vacation to the beach this week for a week I intend to take both my Kindle e-ink and iPad as nothing beats beach book reading more than an e-ink Kindle. Bar none. The iPad will be used strictly for inside the house. One grain of sand could easily destroy it.

  • Reply 5 of 18
    This will never strike competition for apple. Everyone always goes for the low end of the market when they become desperate to sell what they couldn't with original prices(a more recent example with the surface RT) and see with apple it has never been that way. They own the high end of the market so no matter if another company sells more products than apple they are most certainly not making more profits than they are. This article just seems to be advertising this sale and I for one do not care for caveman technology
  • Reply 6 of 18
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by sog35 View Post


    My Kindle fire resides next to my toilet.  Thats all its good for.  Bathroom reading.


     



     


    Do you need to disinfect it periodically?

  • Reply 7 of 18
    Is it "Kindle Fire sale continues..." or "Kindle fire sale continues..."? :)
  • Reply 8 of 18
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    sog35 wrote: »
    pazuzu wrote: »
    Do you need to disinfect it periodically?

    I never swipe after i wipe

    But please make a V after pee.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    In recent weeks, Amazon has held a number of sales on its Kindle Fire lineup, and on Thursday the company's refurbished 8.9-inch model was discounted by $60, as the online retailer continues its efforts to carve away market share from Apple's iPad.

    Instead of going that route, they could also think about:

    Create an Operating System from scratch, using proven tech and 30+ years of experience,
    Go friking bezurk on how to save on battery life, thinking what no one has done before,
    Build the best possible hardware you can dream up, no matter what the cost are,
    Create an ecosystem that will attract and entice people to actually want to buy - and use - your product.

    But alas, they're dropping the price. In my view, therefore also its value.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    stourquestourque Posts: 364member
    I love Amazon's business model: sell the hardware at a loss with the idea that you'll make it up in sales of e-books, which, by the way, you also sell at a loss to increase market share. And Wall St loves them.
  • Reply 11 of 18

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 512ke View Post



    I'm only half joking: I would not be surprised to see Amazon start giving away Kindle Fires for free along with a $25 Amazon gift certificate (good for any product except Apple's.)



    Hard to compete when your competitor is selling product at a loss. Amazon is the online Walmart.


    no.  That comparison is like saying "The Predator is an alien Dutch."     We all know they are very different (one hunts for fun, one hunts because that's what he's paid to do).


     


    to run with that, I would say "Amazon is to Walmart as The Predator is to Dutch"   


     


    And the amazon ecosystem is not selling at a loss (at least not much of one).  In fact until 2011, it was operating at the same margins as Walmart.


     


    In the battle of highly integrated systems, Amazon and Apple and Walmart are highly advanced species... Just that Amazon/Walmart have to sell everything to everybody thus annihilate their competitors...  Apple just has to sell a few things to a few people to thrive in the niche.

  • Reply 12 of 18
    stourque wrote: »
    I love Amazon's business model: sell the hardware at a loss with the idea that you'll make it up in sales of e-books, which, by the way, you also sell at a loss to increase market share. And Wall St loves them.
    Actually Stourque that's precisely what the video game industry has been doing for years - sell the systems at cost or for a loss and make a profit on the software side.

    Amazon's really not doing anything new or different here.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    dunksdunks Posts: 1,254member
    pazuzu wrote: »

    BTW when I go on vacation to the beach this week for a week I intend to take both my Kindle e-ink and iPad as nothing beats beach book reading more than an e-ink Kindle. Bar none. The iPad will be used strictly for inside the house. One grain of sand could easily destroy it.

    I love my Kindle paperwhite for reading. The screen is very much improved over earlier models which is what made me finally dip my toe in. The only thing better would have been if they kept the unlimited free internet browsing from the kindle 3. Then it would have been the ultimate travel companion. I mostly sync Instapaper and sideload ePub books through Calibre. Haven't bought anything from the amazon bookstore yet but it's good for reading samples.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    Too bad they don't give away free Kindle Fires for Amazon Prime members. I'd gladly take one for free even if it's the non-HD version.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    alfiejralfiejr Posts: 1,524member


    Turns out after all the hype the Fire was a niche product after all - an accessory for hard-core Amazonians - and that market niche is now filled up. might as well give them away to anyone that spends $x,000 on Amazon (i'm only half-joking - Amazon might soon actually do that).


     


    and what hype it was. one in a long list of iPad wannabes - the Playbook, the TouchPad, so many droid clones i can't count them all let alone remember their names, and last but certainly not least (-$1B already), the Surface RT now on death watch.

  • Reply 16 of 18
    solomansoloman Posts: 228member
    dunks wrote: »
    I love my Kindle paperwhite for reading. The screen is very much improved over earlier models which is what made me finally dip my toe in. The only thing better would have been if they kept the unlimited free internet browsing from the kindle 3. Then it would have been the ultimate travel companion. I mostly sync Instapaper and sideload ePub books through Calibre. Haven't bought anything from the amazon bookstore yet but it's good for reading samples.

    You do know that you can borrow ebooks for free through Amazon?
  • Reply 17 of 18
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Pretty interesting change with the new Fire tablets revealed yesterday. Amazon now has 24/7 support, and not just phone support either.

    Called Mayday and sporting it's own on-screen icon "a tech advisor appears on your screen and walks you how to fix things." On his end, Dylan (or whoever among the thousands of support reps you should happen to be paired up with) can see your display, but not you. Ask him for some help (or something as inane as recommending a new game) and he'll walk you through the steps, drawing circles and arrows along the way, like some Monday Night Football commentator. Or, if you choose, he can just do it for you. You can also move the box around or he can do that for you, as well. If you have to enter a password, meanwhile, he can shut off screen-sharing."

    Still using Android, this time forking Jellybean for their "Mojito" OS. The new Fire HDX 8.9 is really light too, coming in at just 13.2 oz, while extending battery life to 11 hours, or up to 17 in "reading mode".
    http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/25/amazon-debuts-kindle-fire-hdx-7-and-8-9-inch-tablets-we-go-han/
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