The recent drop in price of the Blackberry Playbook is in part caused by the recent release of the Amazon Kindle Fire. Read on to find out more on the tablet wars the new Amazon Kindle Fire is starting.
The Kindle Fire is being sold at just above cost in an economy that some consider to be a depression.
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How Kindle is hurting Blackberry Playbook
Prices Tank For The Playbook
The drastic price drop on the only tablet that Research In Motion has ever put out is killing their profits. The Amazon Kindle Fire is part of the reason for that price drop. The Playbook had its price slashed from $200 dollars less, then to $300 dollars less than its opening price. This resulted in the Playbook quickly being sold out at Office Max and Best Buy. Best Buy posted a statement that the low price of the Playbook, $199, was a temporary deal. That happens to be the same price Amazon is asking for their Kindle Fire tablet.
The Playbook Is A Great Tablet
The Blackberry Playbook is a great work from Research In Motion. It was built with their new baby, QNX Neutrino. The software was bought for a cool $200 million dollars by Research In Motion so they are in need of getting a return back on that investment. Now the news is that the Playbook is losing $50 to $75 dollars for every unit sold. The bad news is that Research In Motion will not be meeting their financial forecasts. The Amazon Kindle Fire is part of that bad news.
The Amazon Kindle Fire Is A Marketing Stealth Fighter
The Kindle Fire is something of a rare bird in the world of tablets. The operating system is a branch off of the Google Android mobile operating system. This “fork”, as it is called, also got its own app store in the Amazon business. The screen of the Fire is the same size as the Playbook. The internal hardware of the Fire is typical, even unimpressive. Amazon is selling it and losing money as well. That is, it is being sold at less than the cost to make it. The difference between Research In Motion and Amazon is that Amazon planned this type of marketing. Research In Motion did not.
Amazon Has A New Idea
Amazon has a robust economy to back up the sale of their Kindle Fire. It is sold much like TV remote controls are sold. It is created with an eye to get users to buy things off of the Amazon market. The Fire is off to a “hot start” with two million units sold in two weeks. Some are predicting that it will sell five million in two months. That will be ten million more eyeballs viewing what Amazon has for sale. It is a courageous effort to hike sales while killing competition at the same time. Hot new ideas are usually that way.