Kindle Fire Lights Up 95,000 Pre-Order Sales on First Day
Part for part and with manufacturing costs taken into account, Amazon appears to be losing $10 for every Kindle Fire tablet it sells, according to a build of materials (BOM) estimate IHS iSuppli put together. The reason Amazon can afford to sell hardware at a loss -- if in fact the mega online retailer really is losing money -- is because it will make up for it in services and sales after the fact. If the numbers are correct, Amazon will have to make up $950,000 just to account for the first day of pre-order sales.
According to eDataSource, buyers flocked to Amazon's website and collectively added 95,000 Kindle Fire devices to their virtual carts during the first day it was available. To put that number in perspective, Amazon sold more Kindle Fire tablets than all three other new Kindle eReaders combined.
Amazon has already begun recouping manufacturing costs. eDataSource says that a little more than one in four Kindle Fire buyers (27 percent) purchased some kind of related accessory at the same time, with Marware protective covers being the most popular add-on "by far."
The Kindle Fire still has some ground to make up before it flirts with iPad-like numbers. Back in April 2010, eDataSource figured Apple sold 350,000 iPad devices on the first day, and 300,000 iPad 2 devices on its first day. There's still plenty of time for the Kindle Fire to reach or exceed those kinds of numbers, as it doesn't ship until the middle of November.
Image Credit: Amazon
Comments
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arkymur
October 03, 2011 at 2:12pm
@holly totally did! Too funny! The Kindle Fire looks like it has a dedicated email client though whereas the Playbook only has 3rd party support. This Kindle has a pretty nice price point too.
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Holly Golightly
October 03, 2011 at 12:40pm
Holy Moly that is a lot!!! But Kindle has always been a smashing success since, well since it was first launched. I like the Kindle Fire, I am unsure if it would give me the full experience as a Blackberry Playbook would. I really don't know.
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AETAaAS
October 03, 2011 at 12:52pm
I find it a little odd that you use the Playbook as a case in point for ''full experience''. If anything, it would be iOS and Android devices which properly deliver on that.
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Raswan
October 03, 2011 at 1:18pm
She loves the playbook, and hasn't shut up about it since the price dop (now she thinks they are a good deal). I made the decision long ago to disregard anything and everything she says here, and in fact have come to the conclusion that a better rubric would be to do the opposite of what she says. So has pretty much everyone else.
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Holly Golightly
October 03, 2011 at 1:16pm
Umm, the iPad and the Android Honeycombs are not even in the same level as the PlayBook and Kindle Fire. The iPad and Honeycomb tablets are big. On average they are about 10" and are designed with performance in mind. The Kindle Fire and the Playbook are 7" in size and are designed for ultra portability. You can hold the Playbook and Kindle Fire with one hand while the iPad and Honeycomb tablets require both hands. I can easily fit a 7 incher in my purse while a 10 incher requires a much larger bag. I am only interested in the smaller tablets. Therefore, the choice is only Kindle Fire or Playbook. To compare the Playbook and the Kindle fire. Playbook offers 2 webcams. A fully interactive touch bezel, and a much larger storage space. Kindle Fire has no webcams, bezel might be regular, and it only comes with 8GB of Storages and 5GB free from the Cloud. So to me, it feels somewhat incomplete when comparing both 7 inch tablets side by side... Because they were made at the same factory.
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blkpanthr
October 03, 2011 at 1:50pm
"I can easily fit a 7 incher in my purse while a 10 incher requires a much larger bag"
Thats what she said...
lol
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