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So Far, More Than 50,000 Kindle Fire Pre-Orders Per Day
An anonymous reader writes "Leaked screens from Amazon's internal stock monitoring and assignment system (Alaska) has revealed just how popular the Kindle Fire tablet is already. In just 5 days of being up for pre-order there have been 250,000 reserved. That's more than 50,000 per day or 2,000 sold every hour. If that continues to launch day Amazon will need to have 2.5 million ready to ship to meet demand. To put that in context, the original iPad managed to ship 1 million in its first month."
The key phrase seems to be "if this level of consumer demand continues" — but given the success of the e-ink Kindle line, that might not be crazy. Do you want one, or not?
This device, at $200, can actually give people on limited budgets an entry way to using the internet the way more well-heeled people do. They can stream media, read ebooks, store music in the cloud, access the internet - it's hard to even find a decent netbook at $200, or at least one that performs well at all these tasks.
It could be something that allows the lower income into the web today, instead of the web as it was 5-10 years ago.
Because most people have a job. And $200 is not bank breaking for a lot of people. And because they don't give a shit about a walled garden.
Heh, I think half the average consumers for this type of device would be satisfied with a tablet with two functions: a web browser, and Angry Birds. Bonus for a basic MP3 player. Bring that in for around US$125 and you've got a killer product.
Just junk food for thought...
for many of us who frequent a site like this the price point is spectacular.
I already own an iPad, what I am looking for is a smaller form factor. The only negative I saw with the Fire was no camera, but having an iPad and its crappy as not to be even worth having camera, I found I don't miss that. I have a real camera and a better one on my phone anyway.
To me this is the first real Android tablet at a price point I expected. I didn't want Android tablets trying to ape iPads in features and price. I wanted an good alternative in a package that is not cumbersome. Yeah, after a few months with my iPad it suddenly feels big. It certainly isn't being used for all the things I was planning to use it for, but the Fire will do that just as well and I can buy myself and my parents each one and still be under the price of my iPad. As for the walled garden, I am pretty much there with my iPad and I have seen articles claiming Amazon won't go out of their way to stop me from rooting it if I want.
Frankly, after all the years of Apple products I am tired of the price and getting really tired of the feeling I am locked in.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I wasn't applauding it, I was just pointing out that both platforms have the same shortcoming.
And it's Stockholm Syndrome... I'm not sure what Helsinki syndrome would be... an insatiable desire for cabbage rolls and pea soup? :)
Apple essentially reinvented the market for tablet devices with the iPad. Which is a premium product being sold by a company with a reputation for premium products at a premium price.
Virtually every other major manufacturer looked at it, thought "Hey, we can do something similar" and started selling their product for about the same price - give or take maybe 5-10%. The likes of HP discovered the hard way that they do not have a premium reputation. But the Touchpad sale proved that actually there's huge demand there if the product can be sold not 5-10% cheaper than the iPad, but 50-80%.
Given the development time these things take and the sort of notice you have to give to a big factory to get thousands of anything, Amazon have probably been thinking this for some time.
The iPad 1 is $299 (yes, that's "refurbished," but many people believe that's just Apple's strategy for price discrimination since Apple "refurbished" products are indistinguishable from new).
That's the real competitor for the Kindle Fire, and with over twice the screen real estate, twice the memory, and an infinitely better selection of apps than are available in the Amazon Appstore, for most people the iPad is likely to be the better purchase.