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YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Braving the Amazon: $79 Kindle costs $84 to produce, will online retailer recoup loss?

    By Amir Iliaifar | Digital Trends – Thu, Nov 10, 2011

    Just last month it was reported that Amazon’s profits were down 73% due to the online company’s heavy investment in its various tablets, including the Kindle Fire, which is set to release on November 15th. Additionally, it was reported that Amazon was bracing itself for the eventually release of its hotly anticipated tablet, knowing it would have to sell the tablet at a $10 loss and recoup that through content that customers purchased. While the impending loss on Kindle Fire hardware sales is no secret, according to a report from MainStreet, with the help of iSuppli, Amazon is also taking a loss on the $79 Kindle.

    According to the report, the materials used to make the $79 Kindle total at an estimated $78.59 while the manufacturing costs sits at $5.66, bumping the total to $84.25. It’s important to note however, that the $79 Kindle does come with a host of ads that help ease the majority of the subsidized costs.

    Even though Amazon is selling the $79 Kindle at a loss doesn’t mean it’s losing money in the long term. “This is a subsidized device that comes with advertisements that make money for the company and offsets that manufacturing price, giving Amazon its profit margins,” says Rob Enderle, Digital Trends contributor and principal analyst at The Enderle Group.

    Of course the strategy being employed by Amazon is a luxury that the company can afford. The ad-sponsored Kindle is the third in its generation allowing Amazon the time to explore various revenue models and price the device at the lowest figure possible. And because the Kindle also sells and directs users to various Amazon services and products; the company is further given the marketing maneuverability to be aggressive as it is being.

    Enderle goes on to predict that more and more companies will follow suit and aggressively market their respective e-readers and tablets.

    “We’re just starting with this concept and I expect other businesses will follow it as well, “Enderle says.

    [Source: MainStreet]

    This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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    2 comments

    • Blue Green
      Blue Green  •  6 mths ago
      As with the other article about the same thing. They give away printers because they know the cost of ink will make them rich.
      • Chris Omar LA
        Chris Omar LA 6 mths ago
        Things is, geeks have hacked printers so they can run on cheap replacement ink. It won't be far off when they can either hack the Kindle's closed-system onboard memory, or make a clone of the Kindle that has expandable mem card and accepts a wider variety of ebook formats. I think Amazon's made a poor move revenue-wise with underpricing the Kindle.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Los Angeles, United States  •  6 mths ago
      Ads on a Kindle? No thanks.
     Post a comment
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