“Target Corp said on Wednesday that it will stop selling Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle devices in coming weeks,” Alistair Barr and Jessica Wohl report for Reuters.
“The decision includes Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet, its range of Kindle e-readers and all accessories for the devices, including covers and chargers, said Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder,” Barr and Wohl report. “Target’s move comes as the retailer outfits some of its stores with special displays of Apple Inc products, including the iPad, which competes with Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet computer.”
Barr and Wohl report, “Target’s Synder said the company “continually evaluates its product assortment to deliver the best quality and prices for our guests.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Target has it right. After all, why bother with a limited-to-Amazon, pretend iPad with a disappointing, tiny low-res screen when you can delight your customers with the real thing?
You wanted to play hardball (by whining like a little baby to a brain-dead DOJ), Bozos?
Welcome to your first day in the big leagues.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sarasota” for the heads up.]
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I really don’t understand why this has to be an either/or kind of thing. Surely there are people who would like to buy both devices. (I don’t personally, but I’ve read that some people prefer the Kindle as an e-book reader to the iPad. In fact, on a beach in bright sunlight, the Kindle kicks the iPad’s butt.)
I own both an iPad 2 and a second generation Kindle, which I use to for novels because I prefer the e-ink display when I read for an extended period of time. I don’t need the Kindle to do anything other than be an e-book reader because my iPad does everything else, and it does it better than anything on the market.
Obviously, neither of you two has ever used or probably even seen an iPad 3.
Once you see and use an iPad with a Retina display, you can never go back to crap like the Kindle.
I concur. I have both and used to prefer e-ink for novels, but after reading “The Hunger Games” on iPad 3, I don’t knw that I’ll ever bother with Kindle again. iPad 3 has larger screen (less page turning), much higher contrast, doesn’t need a light, and glorious high-resolution text. Anyone want to buy an e-ink Kindle?
Your assumption, at least in my case, is incorrect. I own a New iPad. I have not had it on the beach yet, but I presume that it will suffer from the same problems as the original iPad and the iPad 2 (both of which I also owned). To whit, they were unreadable in sunlight and shut down within a few minutes due to overheating.
Exactly why the iPad (all of them) and the Kindle can co-exist. I enjoy going out in the yard to read but it simply can’t be done with my iPad 2 (have no idea about the 3), so it’s still paperbacks and lemonade for me.
As you noted in the first post, I also don’t understand this either/or thing with Target (tar-zhay in the Midwest, where Velveeta is featured in the gourmet section of the grocery).
If I wanted full tablet functionality, I wouldn’t touch a Kindle Fire. I’d buy a New iPad.
But if all you want is an e-reader, a Kindle has its place. I bought one recently. It’s a bit laggy and the formatting of some of the eBooks I’ve downloaded so far is less than perfect. But it’s light, the text is clear enough for my purposes, and it cost around a quarter the price of a New iPad.
Much as I’d like an iPad, the Minister of Domestic Finances pointed out that my MacBook Pro and iPhone 4S between them more than meet my mobile needs.
Obviously, you don’t know me, so you wouldn’t assume that I have never used or seen the “iPad 3”, because I have. Yes, it’s a beautiful piece of technology and the Retina display is amazing. This is just a matter of personal preference when it comes to reading for an extended amount of time. I use my iPad for everything else, more so than my MBP.
“I really don’t understand why this has to be an either/or kind of thing.”
You obviously don’t work in retail. Good companies always evaluate what is on the shelf, what moves and what doesn’t and profit per sq. inch/shelf space/etc.
I would guess that after evaluating the devices they can offer then have “elected” to give more space/shelf to products that produce better results or have accessories that can produce results. Price per square foot or inch, Apple is the ruling KING of that area.
I’m not just saying the iPad or Apple products, there are others that probably have greater appeal to the retailer.
Not to mention product drive or in other words, which products bring people into the business. I just don’t see people lining up in front of Target for Kindles.
My understanding is that the Kindle only works with books from Amazon while the iPad works with multiple book venders. Do I have that right?
Does the Kindle Fire with it’s color screen read well at the beach? Again, this is only a question, not a complaint. I don’t own one and don’t know the answer.
Yes, at least in theory. My DW got a Kindle about a month before the iPad was announced. I was pretty impressed, to read a whole library on an eight ounce device, the implementation of WhisperNet (invisible to the user) and long battery life. Pretty cool stuff, but I was pretty sure the iPad was coming, even cooler.
I finally got an iPad in September of that year. It was terrific, but there was a lot to learn to get the full strength of the machine. Within about four months, I found I was sharing the iPad. DW liked surfing on it as well playing games (she was avid about hidden object games at the time). A couple of months later I let it slip that I thought she needed the new iPad2. She said “No, no, we can share. It’s not a problem is it?” As if I would demand more time on it, she already treads to close to the Dark Side. I want to give her all the good things I can. A couple of months later, she allowed as how she might need her own iPad. Enough said, problem solved. In the mean time we had started sharing books she had bought for the Kindle, with me reading using the iPad Kindle App. Amazon deserves some real kudos in some areas.
For my BD this year I treaded myself to a release day purchase of a New iPad. I am not letting her play any Hidden Object games on the Retina Display. She mostly just dusts the Kindle these days. It’s just too easy to have her books, database of books, games and surfing the web on one handy device.
The ipad is bad at books, sorry it’s too awkward and heavy
But stanza on the iPhone is brilliant, 1 handed reading in the bank queue, or lying in bed with no light
Don’t read in sunlight, very damaging to your eyes
🙂
Boom!!!!
I can understand dropping the Kindle Fire, but why are they dropping all book readers with digital ink displays?
It’s not like the iPad is that great of book reader, especially when you consider outdoor readability and battery life.
Sales. If any tablet other than the iPad were selling in decent numbers, Target would carry it.
Target’s not dropping *all* book readers, just the ones from Amazon – due to, from what I read earlier, a “conflict of interest,” (like Amazon asking people to scan physical barcodes at the store, then order the same product from them).
You make a great point!
Indeed! I hadn’t thought of that at all. I am so used to jotting down book titles/authors in my paper & pencil notebook, then checking at the library to see if it’s available there before going back and buying.
I’ll bet that a fair number of people who are tech savvy and are bargain hunters do precisely this.
Probably too many returns…
You nailed it, MacFreak!
Dad loves his Kindle Fire. Competition is good, but no one can compete!
This isn’t an ideology fight. Apple doesn’t compete with its retailers, selling at the same price everywhere. Amazon is like Target in that it sells other company’s items. However, it has to collect sales tax from every sale, something Amazon doesn’t do except where it has to legally. Additionally, Amazon can discount its Kindle products below cost to move them, since they’re just loss leaders for selling other Amazon products. Target has simply decided to not help the companies that are trying to put them out of business.
That makes total sense!
Exactly. Target selling the Kindle is like Kohl’s selling a Sears’ catalog.
Why help Amazon, when Amazon’s goal is to put you out of business?
Others are making this move related to the Apple iPad move, but it’s not. It’s separate. It’s about Amazon’s business of undercutting retailers.
you are right.
— Amazon is a direct competitor to Target. Apple isn’t (mostly).
— Brick and motar retailers are going broke because they are saying they are becoming just ‘show rooms’ for Amazon. Consumers browse in their stores, often using up sales people’s time and then shop at Amazon at a discount.
— Apple for many years has a policy where they don’t give much leeway for online Apple retailers to significantly undercut brick and mortar retailers: the prices are about the same +/- 5% or so (except for the occasional ‘blowout’ sales etc). But many electronic, appliance, publishers etc don’t have the same policy, you can get them much cheaper from Amazon. Books for example can be discounted 37% or more via Amazon.
— the profit margins for Kindles might be very small and might not to be very profitable (high returns vs iPads?). Also I suspect lots of people who bought Kindles ONLINE use retailers like Target as free ‘Genius Bars’ i.e asking their salesguys questions about the device because they don’t know how to use it.
Brick and motar retailers struggling with dropping sales and small margins helping Amazon is crazy.
…selling a Sears catalog, which comes in the mail for free anyway. LOL
Amazon has been incredibly successful with their advertising message about e-ink. Clearly, since every time Kindle is mentioned on MDN, we see several posts defending it as ideal “for reading in bright sunlight”.
I don’t know about any of you, but I spend the total of about two weeks per year vacationing on some beach, which is about the only time I read books in bright sunlight. All the rest of the year (the remaining 50 weeks), I read mostly in the evening (when the sun is down), while commuting (inside a bus or a subway car), while waiting at the doctors, DMV, bank, etc. In other words, I spend up to four percent of my reading in bright sunlight; the remaining 96% under artificial light. Under such conditions, Kindle with e-ink display is noticeably inferior to backlit LCD displays (even to ordinary books, whose paper is much brighter than e-ink display background). This is why most commonly sold accessory to the e-ink kindles is a — reading light!
In other words, e-ink is obviously not an advantage, when the only time it is better that LCD is about 4% of average reader, meanwhile LCD is superior in all other scenarios. About the only real advantage for actual reading that I could possibly see is the actual size, which is, strictly for reading, a bit more convenient that the somewhat bulky iPad. In other words, a Kindle tends to be able to fit in more purses than the iPad.
Pre….
You have a point, but my “Sunlight Percent” is zero. Course I am almost allergic to sunlight! 🙂
I am willing to bet Target is aware of Apple future products Target may see the competition expand into the Amazon space by Apple itself. Target may be clearing the shelves and space for the new lines of Apple users fawning over the 8 inch iPod / iPad Retina / E-ink like or is, with the current 9.7 iPad Ver 3.