Amazon hasn’t been able to beat the iPad in terms of features, apps or build quality, but the ace up the online retail giant’s sleeve was always the price: at just $199 for the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, getting Amazon’s tablet is at least $130 cheaper than Apple’s cheapest iPad mini.
Undercutting Apple on price, then, is the major way Amazon is competing ith Apple in the tablet space, and a new report suggests they are about to take that even further with the release of a $99 Kindle Fire.
According to a new report by TechCrunch, the $99 Kindle Fire will come with a Texas Instruments Processor and feature a 1280 x 600 display, so don’t expect it to boast the “HD” moniker.
Currently, a Kindle Fire costs just $159, so knocking $60 off the top doesn’t seem totally unreasonable.
It’s a strategy that makes sense for Amazon. While Amazon will be taking something of a loss on the hardware, the Kindle Fire line-up of tablets is really just a means of getting a computer wholly dedicated to purchasing things from Amazon in consumers’ hands. Not a bad strategy, when you think about it.
Source: Techcrunch