Kindle Fire Will Vaporize Android Tablet Rivals
Bad news for Android tablet hopefuls. Amazon is going to capture a huge portion of the Android tablet market next year.
Half, actually.
This according to Evercore Partners analyst Robert Cihra, who says the Kindle Fire’s loss-leading $199 price could effectively ruin the market for other Android tablet makers.
“Amazon’s Kindle Fire has come out of the gates strong,” Cihra writes. “[And its] success may just vaporize other ‘for profit’ Android tablet OEM roadmaps.”
Not to mention non-Android tablet vendors like Research In Motion, who were evidently “blindsided” by the Fire’s low price point.
And that’s good news for Amazon and Apple. Especially for Apple, actually, because it creates a market in which the iPad dominates the high end, the Kindle Fire the low, and leaves little room for a serious rival in between.
“We see Apple maintaining its competitive lead, if anything accentuated by what now looks like the only tablet to so far mount any credible iPad challenge apparently needing to do so by selling at cost,” Cihra said, referring to the Fire. “Meanwhile Apple goes on as the only vendor able to cream off the most profitable segment of [the] market.”