“Amazon has recently increased its Kindle Fire orders to more than five million units before the end of 2011 as pre-orders for the machine remain strong, according to sources from upstream component suppliers,” Yenting Chen, Rebecca Kuo, and Joseph Tsai report for DigiTimes.
“Amazon’s upstream partners including Wintek, Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), LG Display, Ilitek, Quanta Computer, Aces Connectors and Wah Hong Industrial will all benefit from the short-term orders,” Chen, Kuo, and Tsai report.
Read more in the full article here.
But can it run Flash? Oh wait, Flash is dead! Muhahahaha!
it will run flash…
Amazon also loses money for each sale, but heck it runs FLASH. WHOOPEEE DOOOO!
Let’s see $50 loss per unit, that works out to…
Warning: article not suitable for those on low-salt diets!
The same sources who said in Wednesday’s item that Apple was reducing parts orders due to slower than expected sales? The guys with the dog-burger carts just outside the factory gates?
This may be an incredibly brave move on the part of amazon. For a product that hasn’t yet been in one single consumer’s hands yet, it’s a gamble.
Chips are down, big time.
Didn’t it take a few years for amazon to sell 2-3 million kindles? what makes them think they can sell 5 million by the end of the year?
give them away free in every order over $99 on amazon?
About the only way i’d end up with one.
I think you get one free with every amazon prime account
Good; additional 5 million potential iPad buyers year and a half down the road, give or take.
I am a huge Apple fanboy. Have a company with 25 professional people, fully equipped with iMacs, Mac mini, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPhone and iPad. Tons of hardware.
BUT I deeply miss a 7 inch iPad, for reading while holding in one hand. I already ordered some Kindle Fire’s. It is not for work or so, but for entertainment. Steve was wrong not to make a 7 inch gadget. Seriously hope Apple will listen better to the people.
It means nothing that Samsung or so failed with 7 inch. Like it meant nothing that everybody failed with smartphones before the iPhone. No reason to skip the entire product category.
Tim, Scott, Jony, are you listening? Millions of people would buy a 7 inch iPad or iPod.
Oh man, me too. ‘Cept I want one for “reading” in one hand, just like Ballmer’s Left Nut does all day.
Bull….
Oh and by the way, have you wondered why all the other 7″ tablets have failed also, have you tried a 7″ tablet.
Apple was correct,
1. You would need to file down your fingers to use the small form factor.
2. Add to it all the apps the would need to be re-done due to adjust to the 7″ the form factor.
And most of all, Apples sales numbers have proven beyond a doubt that unless you are giving away something for nothing to compete with Apple you will lose. Why would Apple spend millions on R&D just to look at the correct size and form to change it.
If you think Apple will change just because Amazon is selling a cheap plastic tablet with no camera and missing features compared to the IPad just to satisfy a few misdirected fools, you really don’t know Apple do you.
And if you have stock like you say you do, ……
Sell it, your in the wrong market, Apple has done what they needed to do, a few cheap Amazon plastic tabs missing features wont stop anyone from purchasing a iPad if they wanted an iPad.
There is room for a 7″ iPad. It would have great utility for many people. If anyone can make a great 7″ tablet, it is Apple. If you can use an iPod touch or iPhone, then you can use a 7″ iPad.
The 7″ iPad should adopt the 1024×768 pixels of the current iPad 2. The iPad 3 should double that to 2048×1536. It’s all good. There is plenty of room for different solutions in this world. Lighten up.
Sorry, can’t lighten up. Daylight Saving Time is over for this year…
😆
“It means nothing that Samsung or so failed with 7 inch. ”
Aww, that’s cute. You have the same inability to learn that Apple’s competitors do.
Seriously, the fact that every 7 inch tablet has failed completely should tell you something. Especially when the competitors have sought to slavishly copy both iOS and the iPad. The situation is not at all like smartphones before the iPhone.
“Seriously hope Apple will listen better to the people.”
Uh, the people are buying iPads in droves and rejecting 7 inch tablets like they’re made of anthrax. I think Apple is listening pretty well.
It’s the likes of Samsung, Amazon etc. that aren’t listening to the people, and releasing 7 inchers despite that there is no demand for them, and despite that Steve Jobs explained in detail why there would be no demand.
They didn’t sell then, they aren’t selling now, they won’t sell in the future. People can already hold iPads in one hand, meaning that 7 inch tablets are an attempt to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. And they’re still too big to fit in anything resembling a normal pocket. They’re all disadvantage with no advantage. They’re DOA.
I actually think the Fire and new Nook are going to sell for two reasons.
1. They are very, very focused products. Amazon and BN have focused on the most common subset of things people do with their iPads: music, email, movies, internet and e-books. The only thing missing is games, but games would have required more hardware expense (accelerometers, gyros, compass) and an existing game library. If they do what they claim to do and have decent battery life, people will buy them.
2. Price.
HOWEVER, the question is whether or not this is a sustainable business model since they are pretty much selling these things at cost. Neither BN nor Amazon can afford to fritter away several billion dollars over the next three or four years like MS did with X-Box. MS makes huge margins on the games, Amazon and BN don’t make huge margins on their content and retail sales.
Also, these two devices absolutely undermine all the Android OEMs who don’t have storefronts to subsidize their devices and they undermine Android by forking Google out of the picture and using an ancient version of the OS and very limited hardware–7 inch screens, no Blutooth, gyros, accelerometers, compass, 3g, GPS, no mic on the Fire, etc.
Android is in for a very bumpy ride this year.
Some goods points here but wouldn’t potential success of Kindle and Nook make Android more attractive platform for developers? i.e., larger target customer base? Yes, it is an ancient version of Android and would create some serious compatibility issues for Google and customers alike but surely backward compatibility can be maintained in all future version of Android (think Windows)?
Compatibility will be the least of Google’s problems if Amazon and B&N fork Google out of the equation with their own app stores, content stores, browsers and search engines.
Google will have to take control and completely ditch the “open” mantra or they will have no reason to contribute to Android.
This is a serious strategic issue for Google.
Did you see the welcome party Google threw for the Kindle Fire? There wasn’t one. It wasn’t even mentioned in passing on Google’s websites.
Retail question: I am returning the Kindle I bought last week at Best Buy. Best Buy will issue me a full refund but who is ultimatly going to pay the cost of return? Amazon or Best Buy? if Kindle is then will be sold as refurbished, who will get a hit Amazon or Best Buy? Just trying to understand how the value chain works here.
It depends on the contracts negotiated between Amazon and Best Buy. E.g., if Barnes & Noble doesn’t sell a magazine, it goes back to the publisher who eats the cost. If my local coffee shop doesn’t sell all their copies, they eat (drink?) the loss. Since Amazon and Best Buy are both behemoths, it’s up for grabs who takes the loss.
I want a 7-inch iPod Touch to use as a Double-DIN (180mm x 100mm) head unit in vehicle dashboards. I’m tired of looking at all the lousy interfaces that are available with existing head units from vehicle manufacturers and third-party radio manufacturers. I want to use an iOS interface in my SUV!
Amazon will go bankrupt if Kindle Fire is TOO “successful.” 🙂
I thought it was illegal to sell products below cost to try to destroy existing industry competitors.