Report: Google, Not Apple Poses Biggest Threat to Amazon's Kindle Fire

[Michael Essany]

Despite anticipated holiday sales numbers indicative of the iPad losing some traction to the upstart Amazon Kindle Fire, a new report indicates that the tablet landscape could look much different from its present form by the middle part of this year. And that could change who Amazon perceives to be its chief competitor.

According to the latest buzz engendered by Digitimes, Google's widely expected mid-2012 tablet offering will take square aim at the Kindle Fire's market segment - not the iPad's. Although, on the surface, it appears that all tablets are competitors, that isn't the case in today's market.

A primary reason the Kindle Fire proved so popular over the holidays is because of its lower price. While promising high-end functionality at a lower cost, the Kindle Fire is believed to have poached somewhere between 1 and 2 million iPad sales from Apple over the holiday quarter.

"Sources from Google's upstream supply chain believe that Google, instead of Apple, may actually be targeting Amazon's 7-inch Kindle Fire as its major competitor," Digitimes says.

If Google releases a tablet that looks like and is priced competitively with the Kindle Fire, Amazon and Google will then be left to duke it out among the shoppers looking for that which the lower-end tablet variety offers.

Source: Digitimes

[Rcworship]

I bought a Kindle Fire with my Christmas money and am not looking back. With a cost 40% that of the cheapest iPad, I have many job promotions before I can dream of affording one. I rooted the Fire and am quite happy.

[Jastra]

I bought a Kindle Fire with my Christmas money and am not looking back. With a cost 40% that of the cheapest iPad, I have many job promotions before I can dream of affording one. I rooted the Fire and am quite happy.

Awesome!! This is the first I'm hearing of a fire being rooted. What all can you do with your rooted fire??

[celeron]

You can install the Andoid Market...I'll buy a Kinfle Fire soon

[A3gOwner]

Awesome!! This is the first I'm hearing of a fire being rooted. What all can you do with your rooted fire??

It's been rooted since the first week. It's pretty cool how they pull it off using the id3 tags on an mp3 file.

[dfheje]

Wow.. if theres a google and amazon tablet for around $200, then Apple has to respond with something.
Lower the price of the iPad, or a new, smaller but affordable device.
I really doubt Apple would lower the price of an iPad.

[one1]

Apple has never had to respond with a cheaper anything. Its a Mac.

[delusion950]

Apple has never had to respond with a cheaper anything. Its a Mac.

maybe Apple will respond with 7' tablet that was in the talks.

[jOnGarrett]

Apple has never had to respond with a cheaper anything. Its a Mac.

Apple controls the prices of their devices and they have dropped their prices all the way down to FREE. they also sell refurbished devices. If apple dont respond to the competition apple will get left behind--like has with the smartphone market share that sees Android growing by leaps and bounds every Qtr.

[sziklassy]

Apple has never had to respond with a cheaper anything. Its a Mac.

Let's not kid ourselves here. Apple has pretty much floundered its entire existance until they came around with the iPod. They're in a different state now than they were ever before, and they likely will not want to give that up.

That said, I don't see the fire competing directly with the iPad anyway. Most of the people buying the fire were simply in the market for a much cheaper tablet. They would likely not have purchased the thing in the first place if it wasn't so insanely cheap. Personally, I don't see Apple dropping the price of the iPad nearly enough to sway potential kindle buyers at all.

[cookie181992]

Apple controls the prices of their devices and they have dropped their prices all the way down to FREE. they also sell refurbished devices. If apple dont respond to the competition apple will get left behind--like has with the smartphone market share that sees Android growing by leaps and bounds every Qtr.

It makes me so mad when people say stuff about how android is selling better than iOS, of course it is, there are hundreds (possibly more) of android phones out there compared to 3 iPhones. Not exactly a fair comparison huh?

And I'm not saying that because I'm an apple fan boy, I have a HP touchpad (with android dual boot) and I had an HTC phone before I got my iPhone. The only reason I got my iPhone is I was tired of applications not working on my phone due to its hardware and screen resolution. Also due to the promised gingerbread update that never happened.

iOS is in no way perfect, but it's a damn site better than android at the moment (in my opinion) maybe when fragmentation is sorted out (which ice cream sandwich is making worse) I will give it another chance

[one1]

Apple controls the prices of their devices and they have dropped their prices all the way down to FREE. they also sell refurbished devices. If apple dont respond to the competition apple will get left behind--like has with the smartphone market share that sees Android growing by leaps and bounds every Qtr.

Wrong. Apple has never lost a dime on anything. They have never changed the price of their product in any way. You are mistakenly thinking of the carriers offering subsidized deals to make their money back when they bought the phones from apple. How much are the phones on the APPLE SITE where Apple sells them? Right.

Refurbs shouldn't be cheaper? THey are reselling USED items. Of course they are cheaper.