“Why did Amazon take the massive step of developing and producing its own hardware beyond the original Kindle readers and Kindle Fire tablets?” Rocco Pendola asks via Seeking Alpha. “The tablet made sense as a natural extension of the Kindle reader. But, beyond that, Jeff Bezos lurched into futility with the probably-failed FireTV, the no-doubt-it-failed Fire Phone and the it-will-most-likely-fail FireTV Stick. What’s next? A watch?”
“To make money people actually have to use your devices,” Pendola writes. “And Bezos should have realized that beyond readers and tablets, it would be a tough, proving impossible feat to get consumers, even diehard Amazon Prime account holders, to fall in love, practically and psychologically, with even more hardware from Amazon.”
Didn’t Bezos pay attention to the numbers from last holiday season?
• On Black Friday 2013, Apple’s iOS accounted for 28.2% of all online traffic versus just 11.4% for the market share leader, Android.
• iOS was the operating system of choice for 18.1% of Black Friday 2013 online sales compared to a paltry 3.5% for Android.
• iOS devices generated more than half a billion dollars in e-commerce sales versus a measly $148 million for Android.
• Of those sales, iPad owned Android with a 77% share of sales.
• Of the above-mentioned total, iPhone users executed $126 million in Black Friday 2013 online sales.
“Don’t expect those numbers to change much this holiday season unless, of course, they skew even more sharply in Apple’s direction. In fact, as I reread the data, I second guess my contention that Bezos was indeed correct to go ahead with Kindle Fire tablets,” Pendola writes. “But I’ll suspend my cynicism as a happy Prime member who bought Kindle tablets when they came out, made some purchases on them and promptly set them in a drawer to collect dust in favor of iPad.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
After Fire Phone sales flop, Amazon looks to become official vendor of Apple iPhone 6/Plus, source says – October 29, 2014
Amazon posts worst loss in over decade; stock plummets – October 24, 2014
Bezos’ Misfire Phone: Amazon cuts price of Fire Phone flop to 99 cents – September 8, 2014
Bezo’s Misfire Phone: Amazon has only moved 35,000 Fire phones, data suggests – August 26, 2014
Bezos’ Misfire: Fire Phone flops like a dying fish – August 11, 2014
Amazon’s Misfire phone could be 2014’s most epic flop – August 6, 2014
Amazon’s Misfire Phone: Why the Fire Phone will fail – July 30, 2014
Wall Street’s patience with Amazon’s losses wears thin – July 29, 2014
Amazon shares tank after wider-than-expected $126 million loss – July 25, 2014
The Wall Street Journal reviews Amazon Fire Phone: A gimmicky mess – July 25, 2014
Gizmodo reviews Amazon’s Fire Phone: Don’t buy it – July 23, 2014
Amazon accused of bullying smaller UK publishers – June 26, 2014
Why you shouldn’t buy Amazon’s Fire Phone – June 22, 2014
Amazon’s Misfire Phone: How Jeff Bezos failed – June 19, 2014
Amazon’s Fire Phone might be the biggest privacy invasion ever – June 19, 2014
Amazon launches shopping machine masquerading as a phone – June 18, 2014
Amazon Fire Phone’s Firefly feature: Apple’s iPhone already has it – June 18, 2014