Rating: Online store makes plethora of announcements
Amazon made so many announcements at yesterday’s [September 6th 2012] Press conference, that observers are only just beginning to digest all of the implications. Giving you some idea of how much information was revealed by Amazon, GoMobile News estimates that the press release which we have reproduced here is somewhere in the region of eight times the normal length of a typical Press release. Although the company’s devices are tablets, for example, some of the technologies built into them are relevant to smartphones as well. The deal the company has sealed with US mobile phone operator for 4G is also significant for the entire cellular industry. Below are the views of two leading industry anlaysts: – Francisco Jeronimo with IDC and Andy Castonguay, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms.
In yesterday’s press conference, Amazon emphasized the unique nature of its business model – “We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices” – by announcing a flurry of new valued-priced products and updates to its growing line of tablets and e-readers. Updating its flagship Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon revealed 4 new versions of the tablet including three Kindle Fire HD versions in two format sizes (7-inch for $199 and 8.9-inch for $299, $499 with LTE) along with an updated base version of the Kindle Fire. The new tablets have received substantial improvements in screen resolution and anti-glare capabilities, speedier OMAP processors from Texas Instruments, faster dual-band MIMO Wi-Fi design, and a new front-facing camera among other updates, all with competitive price points. In keeping with the latest connectivity standards, the $499 top 8.9-inch model also includes LTE connectivity through AT&T with a subsidized 250MB/month plan costing only $50 per year. While that plan’s data limitations will force heavy users to take advantage of the faster Wi-Fi capabilities for video content, it does offer a substantial discount over similar plans offered directly from AT&T.
The new Kindle Fire HD lineup, which runs on Android 4.0, will provide Amazon with a much needed boost for its device sales, but faces an increasingly competitive field, especially from Google’s Nexus 7 and Samsung’s top tablet models. Amazon’s combination of an expanded hardware offering and well-integrated and robust media services are well positioned for the short-term, but the online innovator will no longer be able to compete with only annual updates to its devices portfolio. Even with the improved quality and continued value pricing,
Amazon will need to issue semi-annual updates and include the most recent version of Android (Jelly Bean) in order to fend off Android competitors in the coming months. For faithful Amazon customers, the new line-up offers excellent improvements and better engagement with Amazon’s expanding media and applications offering. However, Amazon’s value proposition leadership will be increasingly challenged by the likes of Google’s $250 Nexus 7, making it more difficult to convert users of other Android tablets to the Amazon family of services. from Informa and
Jeronimo, who is research manager, European Consumer Wireless and Mobile Communications, with IDC EMEA says,” Yesterday, Amazon gave an important lesson to the entire consumer electronics industry. When a company, any company, knows its customers, when it understands their needs and what matters for them, it can, and will, deliver great products, even if its primary business is to sell shoes, underwear and books online. Amazon has announced not just a great tablet from a hardware perspective, but has bundled it with great services and content, significantly improved the user experience, and is bringing it to consumers at a price that will make the (good quality) tablet segment accessible to the mass market for the first time.
The Kindle Fire HD is likely be a top seller this Christmas. Amazon’s tablet provides a richer user experience than the Google Nexus 7 or any other 10-inch Android tablet on the market. The media is embedded in the hardware in such a way that it seems a feature of it and not an application that comes with it for users to open when they need to access content.
All smartphone and tablet players need to watch the revolution that Amazon is making carefully. They have been shouting about how important it is for them to develop an ecosystem; how great the hardware is; how good their services are… but the bottom line, it is now clear, is that they haven’t really executed (or understood) what they are preaching. And they are now probably looking at the Kindle Fire HD specs and calculating the bill of materials to figure out if they can compete with those prices, failing to understand the broader picture and trend.”
Andy Castonguay, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms, commented,”Amazon emphasized the unique nature of its business model – “We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices” – by announcing a flurry of new valued-priced products and updates to its growing line of tablets and e-readers. Updating its flagship Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon revealed 4 new versions of the tablet including three Kindle Fire HD versions in two format sizes (7-inch for $199 and 8.9-inch for $299, $499 with LTE) along with an updated base version of the Kindle Fire. The new tablets have received substantial improvements in screen resolution and anti-glare capabilities, speedier OMAP processors from Texas Instruments, faster dual-band MIMO Wi-Fi design, and a new front-facing camera among other updates, all with competitive price points. In keeping with the latest connectivity standards, the $499 top 8.9-inch model also includes LTE connectivity through AT&T with a subsidized 250MB/month plan costing only $50 per year. While that plan’s data limitations will force heavy users to take advantage of the faster Wi-Fi capabilities for video content, it does offer a substantial discount over similar plans offered directly from AT&T.
The new Kindle Fire HD lineup, which runs on Android 4.0, will provide Amazon with a much needed boost for its device sales, but faces an increasingly competitive field, especially from Google’s Nexus 7 and Samsung’s top tablet models. Amazon’s combination of an expanded hardware offering and well-integrated and robust media services are well positioned for the short-term, but the online innovator will no longer be able to compete with only annual updates to its devices portfolio. Even with the improved quality and continued value pricing,
Amazon will need to issue semi-annual updates and include the most recent version of Android (Jelly Bean) in order to fend off Android competitors in the coming months. For faithful Amazon customers, the new line-up offers excellent improvements and better engagement with Amazon’s expanding media and applications offering. However, Amazon’s value proposition leadership will be increasingly challenged by the likes of Google’s $250 Nexus 7, making it more difficult to convert users of other Android tablets to the Amazon family of services.
Amazon gave an important lesson to the entire consumer electronics industry. When a company, any company, knows its customers, when it understands their needs and what matters for them, it can, and will, deliver great products, even if its primary business is to sell shoes, underwear and books online. Amazon has announced not just a great tablet from a hardware perspective, but has bundled it with great services and content, significantly improved the user experience, and is bringing it to consumers at a price that will make the (good quality) tablet segment accessible to the mass market for the first time.
The Kindle Fire HD is likely be a top seller this Christmas. Amazon’s tablet provides a richer user experience than the Google Nexus 7 or any other 10-inch Android tablet on the market. The media is embedded in the hardware in such a way that it seems a feature of it and not an application that comes with it for users to open when they need to access content.
All smartphone and tablet players need to watch the revolution that Amazon is making carefully. They have been shouting about how important it is for them to develop an ecosystem; how great the hardware is; how good their services are… but the bottom line, it is now clear, is that they haven’t really executed (or understood) what they are preaching. And they are now probably looking at the Kindle Fire HD specs and calculating the bill of materials to figure out if they can compete with those prices, failing to understand the broader picture and trend.
