Amazon Kindle Fire an iPad Killer? Analysts Doubt It
The Kindle Fire tablet that was unveiled on Wednesday by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has already been dubbed an "iPad Killer" by many due to its low price for a tablet computer.
Commentators suggest that the Kindle Fire's induction into Amazon's repertoire of books, music, and other exclusive content makes it a formidable opponent against Apple's iPad that has a similar ecosystem of exclusive content.
Several analysts, however, say that despite the advantage, the Kindle Fire still does not have what it takes to beat the iPad.
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"Hardly an iPad killer," Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White said in a statement to clients. "While Amazon's price point, installed base, digital content and cloud ecosystem will attract a certain consumer demographic to the Kindle Fire, there is still no real competitor to the iPad 2."
The Kindle Fire's specs include a 7-inch backlit-color screen, 8GB of storage, and Wi-Fi.
While analysts suggest that its $199 price tag may lure in users who are looking for a cost effective tablet, they say that the iPad's reign as the number one selling tablet is sure to continue.
The iPad currently accounts for 75 percent of overall tablet sales.
Analysts note that two things the Kindle Fire lacks are a microphone and camera, two popular specs that can be found on the iPad.
However, they also note that the Kindle Fire may not need fancy specs in order to serve its purpose, which is to be a medium of content consumption: of Amazon's large, book, music, movie and app market.
Amazon’s content sales make up the majority of its market, which has left analysts to conclude that the company does not need the Kindle Fire to fare amazingly well against the iPad.
Analysts expect that the Kindle Fire will do well after the success of Amazon's original low-cost Kindle e-reader, but remain that the device is far from an iPad Killer.
"Is there going to be overlap between the Fire and the iPad? Sure," said Gottheil. "I don't have any doubt that [the Fire] will have success. But for the most part the market has already bifurcated. And Apple owns, and will continue to own, the higher end of the tablet market," said Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil.
