Kindle Fire Is Sold Out Forever

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from geek.com: "Amazon has released a rather bizarre bit of news today. The Kindle Fire has completely sold out. You can no longer buy one, and the wording of the press release suggests there won't be any more manufactured. In nine months on sale Amazon claims to have secured 22 percent of tablet sales in the U.S.. With that in mind, Amazon will definitely be selling more Kindle Fires, however, the next one you'll be able to buy will probably have a '2' at the end of the name. Jeff Bezos said that the Kindle Fire is Amazon's most successful product launch so far and that there's 'an exciting roadmap ahead.' He also confirmed Amazon will continue to offer hardware, but there's no detail beyond that." Also covered on Slashcloud.

Comments

Slow news day?

[ChunderDownunder]

Product withdrawn from sale pending announcement of new product.

Film at 11.

Re:Slow news day?

[Xest]

To be fair, most companies keep selling the old one until the new product is actually available though. Some even continue to sell the old model afterwards as a budget model.

Re:Slow news day?

[Applekid]

To be fair, most companies keep selling the old one until the new product is actually available though. Some even continue to sell the old model afterwards as a budget model.

I remember there was a lot of grumbling when the Kindle 3 came out like a week after the Kindle DX (based on the Kindle 2) did.

Meanwhile, back in the days when Apple products were announced AND were available in stores immediately, any pending orders would get upgraded to the new models automatically, which was pretty cool of them.

Re:Slow news day?

[gstoddart]

Some even continue to sell the old model afterwards as a budget model.

ie. They lose money.

Or gain market share.

In the case of a Kindle, the expectation is you'll be buying eBooks from Amazon.

The reality is, selling it at a loss is better than having unsold inventory you'll never sell anyway. So you might as well sell at a discount and recoup *some* of your costs, or you just end up with junk and recover none of your costs.

Re:Slow news day?

[cpu6502]

I don't think Amazon planned it this way. They stopped production on the older Kindle Touch and Fire, and sold-out faster than anticipated. That's all..... no grand conspiracy.

Re:Slow news day?

[cpu6502]

>>>any pending orders would get upgraded to the new models automatically, which was pretty cool of them.

Unless you didn't want the new models, then it would suck. For example I wouldn't want the new 4S phone because it has a dualcore that drains the battery faster than the old 4 model. If I order the "4" then that's exactly what I want..... not Apple to upgrade me.

Another example of this is where I ordered a stick-shift Beetle and the dealer "helpfully" upgraded me to the Automated Shift because "it gets +2 more MPG". Yeah. True. But I wanted to shift the car myself.

He lost a sale that day.
Then he begged me to keep the business.
So I told him to knock $1000 off the price. His foolish behavior cost him some cash. A customer wants Exactly what they what, not a a car dealer's or Apple's switcheroo.

Re:Slow news day?

[Anonymous Coward]

The poster doesn't have a strange idea at all. Do you realize that if they're set to release in a few weeks and have run out of old stock that they can't just call up Foxxconn and get a few thousand at the same price point that they could get a few million? If they plan on releasing a better model at $199 it may well cost them most than 199 to have a short run produced.
 
you do understand large scale production, don't you? You do understand why producing a limited number of units may cost you more, don't you? You do realize that someone at Amazon can't just pick up a phone and say "make another 50 thousand for Monday." Don't you? You do understand that some of the hardware may not even be available if the same suppliers have retooled for a new product and new parts, don't you?
 
I'm amazed by how short sighted Slashdotters are anymore and how they dismiss another post with a flippant remark instead of having some logic to back up their ideas.

you mean until next week

[milkmage]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/23/us-amazon-event-idUSBRE87M0XH20120823

Re:you mean until next week

[SailorSpork]

Great! Now that there is a temporary shortage of supply, I can sell mine and trade up to a Kindle 2 or a Google Nexus 7. Once the new ones are announced, I'm sure demand for the old ones will drop to zero. Thanks for the alert!

They must have been subsidizing the Kindle Fire.

[InvisibleClergy]

That's the only reason I can think of that they would stop making money. It's like how Microsoft used to lose money on every Xbox sold, or Sony and the PS3. They wanted a foot in the door of the market, and their next offering will be something that makes them money for each unit sold, rather than losing them money.

Remote deletion

[CelticWhisper]

I'll consider the KF2 if Amazon can prove they've permanently removed the ability to remotely delete files from it. No "Sorry (that we got caught)," no "We really truly promise, cross our hearts and hope to die, that we won't use this remote-kill feature which we've conveniently left fully intact and operational on our store servers." I'm not settling for anything less than "We're sorry we fucked with your property, we were wrong to do it irrespective of any licensing disputes, and we've irreversibly crippled our own ability to ever do it again. Here's proof and here's the list of files to rename or delete on your own device to make sure that even if we change our minds, we won't be able to do it to you ever again." Otherwise, I'll keep steering people toward Nook, BeBook, Onyxbook, Kobo, and other brands. Except Sony, of course.

I'm unwilling to buy a device that I end up not truly owning and controlling. I consider the lack of WLAN connectivity on my BeBook to be a feature after what Amazon pulled with 1984.

Re:Remote deletion

[Xest]

Why not just get a Google Nexus 7? It seems to tick all those boxes and is, IMO, a nicer device to boot.

Re:Remote deletion

[Sarten-X]

I'm not settling for anything less than "We're sorry we fucked with your property, we were wrong to do it irrespective of any licensing disputes, and we've irreversibly crippled our own ability to ever do it again. Here's proof and here's the list of files to rename or delete on your own device to make sure that even if we change our minds, we won't be able to do it to you ever again."

Because of course it's perfectly reasonable to expect Amazon to keep up with every licensing lawsuit running through the courts in every jurisdiction. It's apparently also perfectly reasonable to want Amazon to release source code "proof" for a proprietary product, and openly endorse users screwing around in the filesystem of a device they support, opening up their technical support to infinite variety and infinite complications.

Even if they did offer such proof that the original system was removed, any mechanism for remote code execution (whether intentionally present or not) could be abused to reimplement the same function, so the proof itself is meaningless. Even a promise not to do it again is meaningless, because a court order could trump that.

They don't even have a reason to be sorry for altering "your" property. There's a nice "terms of service" contract that you agreed to by using the product, and those terms let Amazon do whatever they want. They had your permission to do what they did, so why should they apologize for it now that somebody regrets that contract?

I'm unwilling to buy a device that I end up not truly owning and controlling.

And manufacturers aren't willing to support or in any way deal with the inconsistent administrative mess of letting you control the devices. Nobody really cares if you buy a device for the hardware, mod it 'til your heart's content, and never let the company know it was turned on. The moment your untrusted device starts dealing with their network, though, you become a threat. So go ahead, and use your offline reader. The companies that offer connected devices don't want to deal with your need for "control", anyway.

Re:Remote deletion

[spire3661]

We are well beyond the "if things arent exactly as i demand, i wont participate.". Like it or not, we are not the drivers of tech anymore and our influence in telling people not to buy spy machines is gone. THe only path left is RMS style or else a doctrine of mitigation like stripping DRM yourself, and backing up on your personal network.

typo

[noh8rz8]

tfs:

Amazon will definitely be selling more Kindle Fires, however, the next one you'll be able to buy will probably have a "2 at the end of the name.

I take it this is a typo... surely they meant 2", as in, Kindle Fire 2", Finally, a kindle fire that you can fit in your mouth!

Re:typo

[jd2112]

The Kindle Fire 1" could fit in an eye. Prior art against Google glasses!

And they could call it the 'EyePod'.

I'd like to see..

[ackthpt]

An all season, outdoor weathersealed version. Probably won't happen, but it would be more useful to me than one which shorts out in a light drizzle (the ones they've been making.

Hope it has a media slot

[identity0]

I know Amazon is trying to get everone to store everything in the cloud, but I really hope they put a media slot (micro or regular SD) on the new Kindle.

I'm seriously considering the nook tablet over the Kindle or Nexus 7, because I can't imagine doing anything on a tablet that really pushes the CPU/GPU, but I can see needing more than 16gb of storage. And not having a nearby wifi spot for the cloud, or the patience to download everything over wifi instead of swapping out a memory card.

Re:They must have been subsidizing the Kindle Fire

[squiggleslash]

You can get a cheap, no-name, Android tablet with a capacitive touchscreen for less than $150 and the KF's specs were always fairly low. The CPU's OK, but the screen is 1024x600, there's stereo speakers but no microphone, there's no camera, and the only ports are audio out and micro USB - no video, no audio in. Oh, and it has a whopping 6G of RAM.

I suspect, actually, the KF does cost less than $200 to build. Not much less, but enough for it not to make a loss if someone buys one and never buys a single app or piece of music.

This development strikes me as a classic "Build anticipation for KF2" thing, not a "Phew, we got rid of the things. They were taking up space" type complaint.

Bear in mind that if the KF2 is a sub-$100 device, or alternatively is a $200 device with specs rivaling the N7, people who just bought a KF1 a few days before are going to be very upset with Amazon unless they issue free upgrades. Older Slashdotters may remember Amstrad's CPC664 fiasco where Amstrad replaced a 64K home computer with a 128K one over night, and the resultant bad press it got Amstrad! Consumers think they're being ripped off if a manufacturer makes their brand new device obsolete.

I'm very interested to see what the KF2 will be. Are Amazon going to go for cheap, or are they going to go for a Nexus 7 competitor?

Re:They must have been subsidizing the Kindle Fire

[Anonymous Coward]

"...but I've played with the fire..."

Traditional wisdom would recommend against such actions.

Kindle Fire 2

[Danzigism]

Why would you continue to make an old product when your new product (Kindle Fire 2) is scheduled to be released any day now? Nothing about that seems bizarre to me.

Re:Out before the iPad mini

[Pikoro]

Just you watch.. Someone will claim that apple invented the 7" tablet form factor...

Re:get a real car

[Dreamlandlocal]

Although I would nonchalantly agree with you, many people including my wife, would vehemently disagree. From her perspective, an automatic transmission is an obvious upgrade over a manual in so far as you don't have to know how and when to shift the gears yourself and don't have to worry about rolling back into the car behind you on "tricky" incline starts.

I recently tried to sell a 2001 vehicle with a manual transmission. For every interested buyer I probably encountered three or four who were no longer interested as soon as I mentioned that it had a manual transmission.

Re:get a real car

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife loves the stick. Can't keep her hands off it.

Re:get a real car

[RobinH]

Not exactly. An automatic transmission is a *requirement* for some drivers, so there is no upgrade/downgrade about it. For someone who is good at (and enjoys) driving stick, manual->automatic is not an upgrade. For instance, an electric->gas stove isn't an upgrade for my parents because they don't have a gas connection at their house.

Re:get a real car

[Richy_T]

What *are* you talking about? Maybe *you* don't know how to drive a manual.

Re:get a real car

[synaptik]

Personally, I think automatic gearboxes are pointless if you're healthy and not somehow disabled.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to hold onto the steering wheel, work the clutch, talk on the phone, eat a messy taco, *and* have to shift gears manually? Do you *want* me to get in an accident, or something?