“Wal-Mart Stores Inc will no longer sell Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle products, making a bet that consumers are more interested in other gadgets,” Jessica Wohl reports for Reuters. “‘We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and eReaders beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments,’ Wal-Mart said in a memo sent to store managers on Wednesday. ‘This includes all Amazon Kindle models current and recently announced.'”
“Wal-Mart’s decision to pull the plug on Kindles, which was reported first by Reuters, comes roughly five months after Target Corp stopped selling the products,” Wohl reports. “Amazon’s margins on selling Kindle are believed to be thinner than those of other gadget makers, in particular Apple Inc. As a result, Amazon may not have much in the way of profits to share with retailers like Wal-Mart. Amazon’s e-readers are the best-selling electronic readers, with the first version of the Kindle Fire tablet grabbing about a fifth of the U.S. tablet market.”
MacDailyNews Take: No, Amazon’s original Kindle Fire did not capture “about a fifth of the U.S. tablet market.”
• Apple’s revolutionary iPad widens lead as tablet sales surge – June 15, 2012
• Apple’s massive domination of tablet market unabated as Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire demand tumbles – June 5, 2012
• Apple’s iPad remains dominant in Q112 while Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire fizzles – June 4, 2012
• Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire shipments have dropped off a cliff – May 9, 2012
• Amazon’s Kindle Fire shipments fizzle to anemic 4% market share – May 4, 2012
Wohl reports, “Wal-Mart continues to sell iPads… Tablet owners are most satisfied with Apple’s iPad, followed closely by Amazon’s products, according to a J.D. Power and Associates tablet satisfaction study released last week.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: There are currently more than 3,000 Wal-Mart Supercenters, over 600 Walmart Discount Stores, and more than 600 Sam’s Club stores in the U.S. There are currently over 1,775 Target stores in the U.S.
MacDailyNews Take: Boom!
Aww, did you scare you, make you poop your pants, poor widdle wannabe monopolist DOJ-whiner, Bezos?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Target to stop selling Amazon’s Kindle, outfit stores with special Apple iPad displays – May 2, 2012
U.S. DOJ bites Apple: The 30% revenue-share model is Apple’s standard practice, not a conspiracy – April 23, 2012
Apple, publishers face class action lawsuit alleging eBook price-fixing in Canada – April 20, 2012
Apple desires federal trial vs. U.S. DOJ over eBook price-fixing – April 18, 2012
Apple vs. Amazon: Who’s really fixing eBook prices? – April 17, 2012
Apple: U.S. DOJ’s accusation of collusion against iBookstore is simply not true – April 12, 2012
Apple not likely to be a loser in legal fight over eBooks – April 12, 2012
16 U.S. states join DOJ’s eBook antitrust action against Apple, publishers – April 12, 2012
Australian gov’t considers suing Apple, five major publishers over eBook pricing – April 12, 2012
DOJ’s panties in a bunch over Apple and eBooks, but what about Amazon? – April 12, 2012
Antitrust experts: Apple likely to beat U.S. DOJ, win its eBook lawsuit – April 12, 2012
Why the market shrugged off the Apple antitrust suit – April 11, 2012
What’s wrong with the U.S. DOJ? – April 11, 2012
Macmillan CEO blasts U.S. DOJ; gov’t on verge of killing real competition for appearance of competition – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ hits Apple,major publishers with antitrust lawsuit, alleges collusion on eBook prices – April 11, 2012
U.S. DOJ may sue Apple over ebook price-fixing as early as today, sources say – April 11, 2012
“Walmart stops selling all Amazon Kindles”
So now Amazon can claim their Kindle is “sold out”!
+1
We always realised that the margins on Kindles were slim, but now we know that they weren’t making up for it on volume, so it wasn’t worth continuing selling them.
If the profit margin on Kindles is too thin to justify stocking them on Walmart shelves, then Amazon has a problem.
Not sure why any retail store would have ever even sold these? Amazon is their competitor end of story.
^^^ THIS. Gary J nailed it.
This was like JC Penny selling Sears catalogs.
“There are currently more than 3,000 Wal-Mart Supercenters, over 600 Walmart Discount Stores, and more than 600 Sam’s Club stores in the U.S. There are currently over 1,775 Target stores in the U.S.”
Two or three display units at each store and you’re talking a significant portion of the total Kindle units sold.
Not sold, shipped.
did they quit selling kindles, or did they quit allowing kindles to hog shelf space in the stores, and floor space in the warehouse?
I am still going to buy a Kindle Paperwhite to read on – I still love my iPad but prefer to read(the only thing it is good for) on my Kindle – Best of both worlds.
Yea, that’s what my Nook is for. Too bad Apple doesn’t make a B&W eReader. Guess the market just isn’t big enough.
are your Nooks and Kindle Paperwhites better to read on than an iPad Retina display? Am just curious.
A Real Kindle (matte e-ink display without Fandroid) beats an iPad for reading- especially when traveling. The Fire is NOT a Kindle and will prove a mistake IMHO.
I agree that the (real) Kindle is a good one on which to read. No glare. Comfortable reading. The Kindle ap on the Mac and the iPad is also good. I use Kindle and iBooks. They are both good but I might give Kindle the edge. Sorry their margins are so low as to lose retailers. Apple has definitely been pushed by competition in the past.
And the Kindles are extremely light and easy to hold one handed.
The e-ink kindles are extremely fragile, my (teenage) daughter cracked two kindle touch’s in a period of a few months (internal e-ink failure not surface glass cracks).
After the failure of the second unit I did some research (both internet and socially (asking friends)) and the failure rate of kindle e-inks seems to be pretty high (astoundingly high actually)
I wonder how a 7.85″ iPad will do for one handed reading?
The real original style Kindle, yes ….. Fire is junk!
What we need now is an appropriately commensurate headline that matches what we’ve seen coming from the analysts about sales of the iPhone 5.
Something like: “Flagging sales of flagship device portend inevitable demise of once dominate on-line retailer”
There, that works.
a Kindle is just a device to sell Amazon stuff.
Already big stores like BestBuy etc are saying their stores are now ‘amazon showrooms’ : people waste their salesguys time explaining the product and then they go buy cheaper off Amazon with free shipping.
Stupid for brick motar retailers to even start selling them in the first place — what were they thinking? — probably like the phone carriers with Android: “we need competition for Apple products (iPad) so that we are not so dependent on them”. I think the managers finally rose from their crazed haze “What the fuk were we thinking! Selling an Amazon purchasing device!”.
Makes me wonder about how Walmart vets all the other goods they sell.
This might prevent them from reaching the hundredth unit sold milestone.
What took them so long? No, I don’t think this is a big loss for Bezos and gang. Walmart and Amazon were both frenemies, one representing the old way, the other the new. The surviving brick and mortar giants are still struggling with online, and what Amazon has become (and a major cloud supllier too!). Just because Walmart fired Kindle doesn’t mean that Amazon’s face goes Paperwhite! http://www.innovationpov.com/walmart-fires-kindle-amazon-face-paperwhite/
FACTS:
1) The Amazon Kindle Fire series does NOT compete with Apple iPads. It’s a glorified eReader. If that’s all you want, then kewl.
2) Having been sold as a competitor with the iPad, hordes of Kindle Fire’s are RETURNED TO VENDOR rapidly after the sale. A real iPad is then purchased instead.
3) Amazon is BUYING MARKET SHARE, while still pretending it is the same market share as the iPad. Amazon loses money with every Fire sale. What a business plan! Worthy of Microsoft.
There are eReaders.
And
There is the iPad.
Which one do you want?
The Fire is not the (real/original) Kindle. Comparing the wrong thing for reading. On the iPad, the Kindle ap is also good, but the reading itself is just not quite as clear…though the reading is fine anyway.
Target dropping the Kindle & Fire was more about Amazon than the eReader market.
Target gets pissed off when people pulled iPhones and scanned bar codes to order stuff on Amazon- essentially becoming a showroom for Amazon. Wal-Mart is not too happy about it, either.
This. Walmart has just realized what Target realized some time ago.
Amazon is building a number of massive, regional distribution centers for the purpose of providing same-day delivery… thereby making Amazon a direct competitor to B&M retailers. Selling a product that helps your competition sell its products is self-destructive.
well, here you go. please, don’t sell any amazon tablet. you will regret later. amazon kindle fire HD will be sold like hotcake. trust me. it is so much better than you think.
you should change your name to psych ward
And don’t forget MDN that the Walmarters are smack in the demographic that Amazon wants to reach. People who make decisions on spec sheets and price tags.
MDN Quote;
“MacDailyNews Take: Boom!
Aww, did you scare you, make you poop your pants, poor widdle wannabe monopolist DOJ-whiner, ”
Good God…how old are you guys?
Does Mummy know you are on the computer?
Pathetic juvenile whiners…
I for one can’t bear to read your puerile posting any longer.
MDN seem to have degenerated into a holding pen for the Jeremy Kyle Show…
As an iMac, iPad, iPod & 6 x iPhone owner I am firmly in the Apple camp but hate to say that I feel ashamed & embarrassed to be an Apple customer every time I see the bollocks you guys spew forth.
I’m bored shitless of you regurgitating the same old crap every time Apple increase their value over Dell for example. The point was made @ 35 posts ago you clueless fuckwits.
Your blinkered & biased bullshit probably scares off more people than it attracts.
I see little difference between the mindset of MDN and that of football fanaticism, religious fundamentalism or even the Fandroids you continue to lambast.
Just imagine your headline posting if it was Android who totally screwed up & released such a poor excuse for Maps. You would have a field day. No scratch that. It would be a field week/month/year even. Fucking hypocrites.
Do you think the Mighty Apple themselves would approve such a half-baked app if it were submitted by a 3rd party developer through the App Store?
And their advice; ‘The more people that use it the better it will get”
Aah…I get it. It’s our fault for not using it enough then? Right…I must be holding it wrong.
And the response from MDN; “Fill out a bug report and send it to Apple”
Do you really think we have the time (or the inclination) to do either?
FFS…grow up and get a life you morons…I for one am out of here.
Well at least MDN let you post your feelings. But I’m afraid I pretty much agree with you. Most of us (adults) just like to keep up with Apple and its products. Over 30+ years I have learned that Apple is just a company it’s not my best buddy. They make great stuff but it’s just a company. It certainly doesn’t need me or anyone here to defend it like it’s our mother. That’s just childish. Apple has and continues to make lots and lots of money for me. But I do work very hard to know how to invest in it. But I’m with you, I wish this site were a little more objective. No, make that even a little bit objective.