Excitement about the Kindle Fire intensified when it was claimed that it could do anything the iPad could do.
While the Fire has no camera or sound input and a lower storage capacity it does have support for Flash which was a very large bone of contention with the iPad even for loyal mac users.
Yougov the UK pollsters, see a major impact when the tablet hits the UK*
“Amazon changes the game by offering such a low-price tablet. YouGov said it’s not unreasonable to expect the iPad:Fire price differential – $499:$199 in the US – to be maintained when the tablet is finally released over here.
Based on further questioning of punters, YouGov said £250 is the price people want to pay for tablets. Hit that mark and sales will rocket, it reckons.”
The fact that the Fire is expected to come in at £130 is simply astounding. It has been reported that the Kindle is being sold as a loss leader with Amazon losing around $10 per unit in the states**. A sure sign that Amazon’s prime motive is market share and content upsells.
So when will we see the Kindle Fire in the UK? The Kindle is released on 15th November in the US but no UK launch date has been provided. If we look at the iPad 3 the US launch date is 5th March 2012 and the UK date is 19th March 2012. However, there was a huge gap between the launch of the original Kindle in the US and the UK. The Kindle 2 had a 7 month delay between US and UK launch.
With the hype surrounding the product, the Christmas 2011 market in the UK would be a big sales opportunity, but on the historic evidence of Kindle release dates that seems unlikely.
*Source: http://www.reghardware.com/2011/10/04/amazon_to_thrash_apple_rivals_when_kindle_fire_hits_uk/
** Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal-tech/tablets/231700101.
