Kindle Fire: Amazon’s Heated Battle for Tablet Market
Executive Summary
Amazon has created a value product that resolves around services over the device itself, known as the Kindle Fire. With the emergence of e- readers, various competitors immediately offered iterations of the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, must decide and define its most promising target segments and positioning of the Kindle Fire against competing products in the market. Based on the initial sales of the Kindle Fire, it is recommended that Amazon move forward in positioning with Apple’s iPad and targeting its consumer segment to “media junkies”. An extensive financial analysis was then conducted to have found that a pricing strategy at
…show more content…
Many of the problems the Kindle Fire faces are weaknesses within the tablet industry in general (Exhibit 1). Criticisms of the device focused on its sometimes lagging display, shorter- than- advertised battery life, and a number of smaller feature- set complaints. Although, a firmware update would resolve the first two of these problems, the feature- set complaints would have to wait until a new version of the Kindle Fire was released, as would the iPad or Android Tablet when faced with such remarks. Amazon’s traditional low margins were a model that has succeeded for the company in the past. However, it is unclear whether the revenue streams from the Kindle Fire would be sufficient to meet the considerable costs (Exhibit 1). At $199 the Kindle Fire was selling at cost as the components and labor were slated to be near $200. It was questionable whether it was possible for Amazon to offer the Kindle Fire for $149, $99 or even free, in return for customers signing up for an enhanced version of its Amazon Prime subscription service. A clear pricing strategy is crucial to maximize profitability and undercut the tablets currently on the market. Following the emergence of e-readers, new entrants offered variations similar to the Kindle Fire (Exhibit 1). Apple’s iPad was a major success and dominated the tablet market for its multipurpose and feature rich device. Both Amazon and Apple had
While value is a competitive advantage for Barnes and Noble’s retention of market share, their prices are not low enough to impose a low cost strategy.
Kindle Fire follows Amazon’s traditional approach of one-two punch of low margins combined with large-scale delivery. Kindle Fire would be price at cost or slightly lower than hardware cost in anticipation of revenues being generated from content sales. Kindle Fire may also be offered at subsidized pricing or even free in exchange of customers signing up for an enhanced version of Amazon Prime subscription service. This therefore implies that hardware revenues are expected to be low.
First, Bezos has shown his intuitive thinking in the decision of unveiling Amazon Kindle, a new device that is completely outside Apple’s catalog though Amazon still sold Apple’s iPod. Furthermore, he introduced to Medias his product, it seemed like a declaration to Apple. Because Apple is a giant of technological industry, so the situation would be complex to be its competitor. However, it was the only way to make a technological evolution by Kindle. As a result, this situation required Bezos to have a quick and broad evaluation for making the decision.
Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer that was launched in 1995 (Rouse, 2014). Amazon was mainly a book selling company that has enlarged its’ business by selling a variety of goods. The company sells all types of technology devices such as cell phones, games, televisions, movies, cameras, computers,
Amazon has created a value product that resolves around services over the device itself, known as the Kindle Fire. With the emergence of e- readers, various competitors immediately offered iterations of the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, must decide and define its most promising target segments and positioning of the Kindle Fire against competing products in the market.
demand of the product.The Kindle line has shown wild success, Bezos will once again try to
Amazon.com is a customer centric company. They put more effort in improving their system to make the experience of customer more comfortable so that he keeps on returning to the website. Jeffery Bezos who is the founder of the Amazon.com started this company after seeing the use of internet increasing rapidly.
The threat of substitutes for Amazon is high. With the exception of its patented technology, there are quite a lot of alternatives to Amazon’s products and services. In addition to physical presence, most companies have an online store as well. Amazon’s products can be purchased all over the internet and they are just spread out among different web sites. The companies operate in brick-and-click mode providing the similar product categories and competitive prices have become the biggest threat for Amazon. However it is extremely difficult for Amazon to establish physical stores or launch price
Many consumers go for what appears to be cheapest and most convenient. The reality is, Amazon’s increasing dominance comes with high costs. “These consequences have gone largely unnoticed thanks to Amazon’s remarkable invisibility and the way its tentacles have quietly extended their reach” (LaVecchia, 2016). It is vital that consumers are aware of this superpower that is taking over.
Amazon.com is a Fortune 500 company that has revolutionized the retail industry. In recent years, Amazon has faced increased competition in the highly competitive online retail space as competitors invested heavily in their online storefronts and infrastructure. Positioned in a highly fragmented industry, Amazon must find solutions that can sustain its long term profitability and maintain its market share. To that end, Amazon should grow the Amazon Prime membership base and expand on its media and mobile offerings.
With the proliferation of communication and information technology, particularly the Internet, most business organizations have been at the forefront to join the e-commerce platform. Amazon is considered as one of the existing and largest e-business platform in the world. This report outlines Amazon’s strategic intent and key resources and capabilities. In addition, the report will also include an analysis of the company 's assets and capabilities that have provided it a sustainable competitive edge as well as, the recommended future strategy of the giant online organization. Amazon defines its line of business operations based on product and service sales, fulfillment, digital content subscriptions, publishing, and co-branded cards. The company 's line of business is defined as an online store, Internet service provision, and the Kindle ecosystem. This project will explore the truth that has made the online company to be considered as the top online retailer, which mainly focuses on strategy. This report also outlines how inventories play a fundamental role in the organization 's business or corporate strategy. The other issues covered in the report include the approach used by the online company deal with the supply chain and the reason behind fast shipping fast. The paper will outline the finance statute of the company and whether the finance effect will bar the organization from developing in future. In order to achieve the answer to the questions
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader which you can download readable and audible content into. The most innovative idea of Bezos about the Kindle was the use of the “E Ink” technology to reduce battery consumption and to provide a more legible display. The Amazon Kindle’s successors were the tablets Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. Amazon priced the Kindle Fire with just $199 as a strategy to boost its revenue from content sales. Amazon’s latest example of diversification includes the launch of the Amazon Fire TV in order to compete with Apple TV and Chromecast. Bezos also entered the highly competitive smartphone industry by releasing the Fire Phone in 2014. An economic advantage diversification provides is economies of scope. Economies of scope refer to a reduction in unit cost based on the idea that the total cost of producing two different goods or services together is less than the total cost of producing them separately. Amazon makes use of the distribution side of economies of scope by shipping a wide range of goods together rather than separately. This gives Amazon the chance to negotiate more lucrative deals with freight companies. Geographic
In contrast to Borders Group, Barnes & Noble which is a leading bookstore in the US recorded an 11% increase in their share value in the past year with the introduction of their e-book reader “Nook”. It is clear that Barnes & Noble were not “Myopic” in their approach and were able to retain and even grow their customers as well as profits by embracing a new product.
Amazon understood firsthand that the competitive advantage of a company originates immediately from how distinctive the organization's resources and competencies are. Amazon is able to both engage in production at a lower cost and generate a superior product at a standard cost. This is accomplished mostly via Amazon's strategy of having a wide variety of goods and competitive pricing. Customers know they can find basic products at slashed prices or high quality goods at standard prices and this is all achieved via the enormous range of products and product brands and types available on their massive marketplace. For example, the depiction displayed in the case study which shows how growth was related directly to: lower cost structure- lower prices customer experience traffic sellers -selection and convenience. While this is a grave oversimplification of the Amazon business model, it demonstrates how many aspects of the strategy reinforced one another.
Barnes and Nobles is one of the biggest bookstores that has a brick-and-mortal store concept. In the past they were know as a “big bully” that drove small book stores to close down because of their aggressive tactics to have competetetive advantage over them. Nonetheless, with the evolving circle of technology they have had a hard time in keeping up with the E-book era. In 2014 E-books increased its reader subscription by 28% compared to 23% in 2013. This number will continue increasing because 50% off American’s have access to devices that are either an e-reader or a tablet. B&N changed its business model to adjust to this new setting before it suffered a