Kindle Fire Will Crush Other Android Tablets, May Increase iPad Sales Say Analysts

In newly released research notes, a pair of analysts have praise for both Apple and Amazon's tablet efforts. They note that the Kindle Fire appears to be doing extremely well, though it is not challenging the iPad directly. In fact, Fire sales could indirectly encourage iPad purchases in the long run.

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Evercore Partners' Robert Cihra writes in a note obtained by Apple 2.0:

While Amazon's Kindle Fire has come out of the gates strong, as expected, 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; not to mention Amazon's success may just vaporize other "for profit" Android tablet OEM roadmaps (e.g., we est Amazon 50% of all Android tablets in CY12). Meanwhile Apple goes on as the only vendor able to cream off the most profitable segment of each market it targets, whether tablet, smartphone or PC.

At the same time, JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz (and the Apple executives that he met with) feel that Apple is not seeing pressure from the Kindle Fire and that they are of the belief that current Fire owners "could gravitate to more feature-rich experiences" later on with the Fire acting as a "gateway drug".

Darrell Etherington, writing for GigaOm:

I think Apple’s optimistic outlook should pan out, however, as long as one thing remains true: tablets continue to encroach upon and replace PCs as primary computing devices for general users. In that case, the Kindle Fire and the iPad likely will enter into a mutually beneficial orbit, with the cheaper device’s drawing in first-time tablet users and the iPad’s acting as a sort of graduation gift for when they opt to use tablets as their main computers.

When the Kindle Fire launched, Apple executives said they welcomed the entry of the Fire to the market for its ability to further fragment the Android ecosystem and its ability to put enormous price pressure on other tablets. The popularity of the Kindle Fire seems to affirm Steve Jobs' belief in an end-to-end software-and-hardware ecosystem -- something that no companies other than Apple and Amazon have been able to effectively assemble.

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Top Rated Comments

ravenvii Avatar
175 months ago
The wife has an iPad, a Kindle, and I got her a Kindle Fire ($199) the other day.

She says the Fire is awesome. I can't stress the word "awesome" enough other than bolds, italics, etc. which would be annoying. She said it's the fastest tablet-ish device she's used and thinks the browser is much better than the iPad.

2nd...she LOVES her Kindle...has owned it for 2 years I think...she's a huge book reader.

3rd...she likes the iPad...but (like me) feels browsing websites (especially shopping sites) is fair...no flash support, pull down menus/choices within the site (like a clothes store trying to choose options) is really rough. She also feels that for $500+, it's essentially an email reader and light surfing (looking up weather, reading some articles) machine...screen is too harsh on the eyes to stare at.

Maybe iPad 3 will finally get the browser right. Would be nice if the iPad 3 were significantly cheaper.

Would be nice to see a Fire that is larger more surfing use cases.

1) The Kindle Fire's browser, faster than the iPad's? Something is very, very wrong with your iPad, I am afraid.

2) Don't get too comfortable with Flash on the tablet - this is the last version that Adobe will make - they have abandoned Flash on mobile devices.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
miles01110 Avatar
175 months ago
Kindle Fire Will Crush Other Android Tablets, May Increase iPad Sales Say Analysts

Kindle Fire Won't Crush Other Android Tablets, May Not Increase iPad Sales Say Other Analysts.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Matthew Yohe Avatar
175 months ago
I saw a Fire at a brick and mortar big-box store this weekend, and was blown away. Not because it was all too impressive, but because tapping the word "Web" doesn't let you use the awesome Silk browser, rather it shows you a video of what browsing would be like.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Amadeo Avatar
175 months ago
The whole "graduation" upsell is possible in theory. But as a marketer myself, it's harder to do it when the graduation is between two competing software/service ecosystems. This is part of the reason why Apple's retainment is so high. Once you buy into their ecosystem, it's hard to get out of it. Because you've invested X amount of dollars into software and content that is only available in that ecosystem.

The situation is no different with Amazon. Apple may be in for a rude awakening if people will be so quick to switch ecosystems from Amazon to theirs when they're "ready". It would be interesting to see Amazon create Fire "Pro" that more squarely competes with the iPad, and keeps users moving vertically within the ecosystem.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DouchGod Avatar
175 months ago
If i look at both devices as purely a content consumption device Amazons Kindle Fire is a attractive alternative to the iPad.

The Apple App store is what makes my iOS devices great and in my opinion no other app store comes close, it's just a shame the 'Mac" app store isn't that great at the moment.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Skika Avatar
175 months ago
"says analyst"

:rolleyes:
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)