I might even goes as far as believing that Amazon’s new Kindle Fire is nothing more than a rather useful marketing brochure. Amazon has turned hardware into a means to not only deliver its core products (books, music, audio – digital media) but they are rightly betting on that those who buy their amazingly inexpensive readers and now their tablet, that they will easily earn more than enough from content sales to offset the cost of the devices.
For at least a decade people have been preaching that information is power – that content is what matters – but it has been restricted in earning power to search advertising and research firms. Information, data, CONTENT in most businesses has (until now) been sitting at the kids table. After testing with their Kindle, and proving that once purchased Kindle owners spend MUCH more money on buying books and magazines than in their “pre-Kindle-existence” Amazon can more confidently move forward with products like the Kindle Fire and a price-point that borders on an impulse purchase – and it’s going to work.
As usual, Apple did lead the way. Apple has had amazing success with its iTunes “integration” into its computer and mobile OS and devices. However, I cannot help but think that Amazon’s massive amount of content, partnerships, and that they don’t have to be concerned about being on the absolute forefront of hardware design will in the next year or so allow them to capture even more of the content market. They will get more of a digital music sales share and more movies (thanks to Netflix’s recent blunders).
That Amazon is NOT pressured to be wicked cool with its hardware design, couple with their keen ability to be the kind of priced content… all I can say is good move. We all knew it was coming, but nevertheless. Well played. If they can use Kindle Fire, it’s price, and current buzz to get more momentum in the online music and video markets… well… Amazon comes before Apple in the alphabet wars of online content.
