GigaOM » kindle fire

Netflix and Amazon step up battle for kids’ eyeballs over summer vacation

Laura Hazard Owen — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:28:27 +0000

Netflix and Amazon would prefer your kids stay out of the sun this summer, thanks. Rather, both companies sent out announcements pimping their family offerings Tuesday that indirectly referred to the ways their product is superior to their competitor’s.

First up, Amazon announced it’s added “more than a thousand books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows to Kindle FreeTime Unlimited,” its monthly subscription streaming offering for kids. Not surprisingly, Amazon didn’t provide subscriber numbers — though Kindle VP Peter Larsen said “the vast majority of our customers who take advantage of our one month free trial of FreeTime Unlimited choose to subscribe and enjoy our content library built just for kids.”

Of course, Amazon’s announcement refers to the Viacom shows that it grabbed exclusive rights to after Netflix lost them: “Among the content on FreeTime Unlimited are “exclusive Nick Jr. favorites from Viacom such as Dora The Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Blue’s Clues and The Backyardigans.”

Then Netflix announced that it’s launched a separate section of its site called Netflix Families, which “helps parents with the daunting task of entertaining kids this summer.” The site offers family recommendations in different categories (“family movie night,” etc.) as well as videos from parents about how they are “embracing the ease and flexibility of Netflix.” And Netflix notes that “Netflix works on almost any device with a broadband, WiFi or mobile data connection” — while Kindle FreeTime Unlimited is only available for the Kindle Fire.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock / jwblinn

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Not a good sign: Barnes & Noble just keeps slashing Nook tablet prices

Laura Hazard Owen — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:29:54 +0000

Barnes & Noble is extending price cuts on its Nook tablets, and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

B&N reduced prices fairly drastically for Father’s Day, discounting its Nook tablets between $70 and $129. That was a big drop for a week-long promotion. But B&N said Monday that the slashed prices are sticking around for … well, at least for awhile, with no end date given, though it’s apparently still “limited-time pricing.”

So the 7-inch Nook HD tablet now starts at $129, down from $199, and the 9-inch Nook HD+ tablet now starts at $149, down from $269. The devices were both launched less than a year ago.

Nook Media President Jamie Iannone said this is to “help our customers gear up for a great summer reading season … We’re thrilled to keep in place our best prices ever and deliver great value to make reading more affordable.” But it’s not a great sign for the health of the Nook tablet business: If customers were snapping up these tablets, B&N wouldn’t have to slash their prices. To be sure, the 7-inch tablet market is crowded, but Amazon’s most basic 7-inch Kindle Fire is still $159 with ads and $174 without, while Google’s Nexus 7 starts at $199 (for 16 GB; the Kindle Fire and Nook HD start at 8 GB). The iPad Mini, meanwhile, starts at $329.

Plus, combine the price cuts with the multiple rumors that Barnes & Noble plans to phase out the Nook tablet line by the end of fiscal year 2014 (which would be a year from now) and it starts to look as if B&N is trying to clear out stock. (The company has already phased out the lower-end Nook Tablet and Nook Color.) We may get more answers from the company’s next earnings report, which comes out June 25.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Amazon pushes forward with Kindle Fire HD’s international expansion

Laura Hazard Owen — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:10:09 +0000

Amazon is greatly expanding the number of countries where its Kindle Fire HD tablets are available, the company announced Thursday. The Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ slates are available for preorder in “over 170 countries and territories around the world” today and will start shipping on June 13 in new regions.

The tablets were already available in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan (as well as the U.S., of course). While a 4G LTE version of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is available in the U.S., only Wi-Fi versions are available internationally.

“Kindle Fire HD is the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon since its launch, and we’re thrilled to make it available to even more customers around the globe today,” Dave Limp, VP Kindle, said in a statement.

In the U.S., the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, which is Amazon’s answer to the iPad, got a big price cut in March. The 4G LTE, 32 GB version, which had been $499, was cut to $399. The Wi-Fi-only version of the same tablet got a price cut of $30 — to $269 for the 16 GB version and $299 for the 32 GB version. Internationally, prices will vary based on operating costs.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Amazon launches its virtual currency, with $5 worth free to every Kindle Fire user

Laura Hazard Owen — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:51:26 +0000

Amazon rolled out Amazon Coins, its own virtual currency, on Monday. Amazon Coins can be used to purchase “apps, games and in-app items in the Amazon Appstore and on Kindle Fire,” and each U.S. Kindle Fire user gets $5 worth (or 500 coins) free.

“We will continue to add more ways to earn and spend Coins on a wider range of content and activities,” Mike George, Amazon’s VP of apps and games, said in a statement. “Today is Day One for Coins.”

Users can buy 100 coins for $1, with discounts up to 10 percent for larger purchases. Developers get their standard 70 percent revenue share for purchases made with Amazon Coins.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Here’s how much in content sales turn Kindle Fire into a money maker

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:22:57 +0000

How much in content sales does it take for Amazon to earn a 20 percent profit margin on its Kindle Fire hardware? About $10 per month, which generates $3 once Amazon takes its 30 percent cut. Senior analyst at ABI Research, Aapo Markkanen, estimated by doing the math last week, saying this incremental $3 revenue would be required over the life of the hardware to maintain such a profit margin.

This turns the Kindle Fire into a potentially lucrative product for Amazon, even though most believe it sells the Kindle Fire products near cost, if not below it. Even better: The combination of decreasing hardware prices over time and a rise in content sales — think apps, movies, books, music — will help the product line even more, according to Markkanen:

“Considering the probable margins of app and content sales, our research shows that Kindle Fire is a credible proposition. We expect that there will be a certain level of ‘innovation plateauing’ in mobile hardware taking place over the next five years, and that would certainly work in Amazon’s favor. Its future devices are likely to require less cross-subsidy than the ones we’ve seen so far.”

Markkanen may not have the exact figure for content profits required, but you can bet Amazon does. And this may be why the company wanted to retain control over mobile app pricing when it launched its alternative Appstore. By understanding consumer preferences perhaps better than any other online retailer, Amazon knows the right pricing “mix” for content sales to make money off hardware sales.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Software turns Amazon Kindle Fire into a Nexus 7 lookalike

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:15:27 +0000

Owners of the original Kindle Fire that want to experience the full Google tablet experience have another option now. A full build of the latest Android 4.2.1 software is available for the Kindle Fire; with a few steps, you can download it, install it and practically turn your Kindle Fire into a Nexus 7 tablet, save for a few functions.

The steps to download or install are available from the XDA Developers site and of course, it’s recommended to perform a full backup of your Kindle Fire in advance. Installing the software will completely remove Amazon’s Kindle Fire software, which uses a customized version of Android. You’ll lose the ability to watch Amazon Instant Video if you take the plunge, but your Kindle Fire will gain far more as it can be used as a full Android tablet.

How well does the Kindle Fire work as an Android 4.2.1 tablet? Pretty good, based on Liliputing’s hands-on video:

I wouldn’t foresee most Kindle Fire owners make the leap of turning their device into a full Android tablet, but enthusiasts might.

Thanks to occasional sales and refurbished deals, you can pick up the Kindle Fire for less than its $159 current price. Add this custom software to a low-cost Kindle Fire and you have a compelling Android tablet without paying full price for a Nexus 7 or other small slate. You won’t have camera support and the screen resolution of the Kindle Fire is lower than the Nexus 7, but it’s still a compelling solution on the cheap.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Amazon’s Appstore is on fire: 500% more downloads this year

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:37:11 +0000

Even without a platform of its own, Amazon is doing just fine when it comes to mobile apps. The company announced on Thursday that “[a]pp downloads in the Appstore have grown more than 500 percent over the previous year.” The two biggest drivers of such growth are likely to be Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet line, introduced in September 2011, and strong developer support for programmers to create compelling Android applications for Amazon’s tablets.

While Amazon has had its own Appstore for Android devices since March 2011, I suspect most of the growth came from Amazon’s own mobile devices and not Android smartphones or tablets made by others. A few phones have come with the Amazon Appstore pre-installed, but most do not. That means consumers have to learn about Amazon’s storefront on their own and then install it themselves. Google’s own Play store is central to the Android experience, which is a potential barrier here.

There’s no Google Play on the Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD tablets, however. It’s Amazon’s Appstore or nothing, save for any hacking or tinkering that might enable traditional Android apps. For that reason, assuming reasonably good sales of Kindle Fire tablets, most of the app download growth is likely from Amazon’s own hardware. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, particularly if the company launches a smartphone, as some expect it to do.

But the growth isn’t related solely to device sales: Amazon has made a serious attempt to help developers create or port applications to the Amazon Appstore. Along with the download figures shared on Thursday, Amazon announced support for A/B testing:

“With A/B Testing, developers can test simultaneous treatments of their apps, receive data about what’s worked best, and quickly adjust their apps to take advantage of this customer learning. A/B Testing is the latest developer service that Amazon has launched (along with Achievements, Leaderboards, Whispersync across devices, In-App Purchasing, and 1-Click Purchasing) that make it simpler than ever for app developers to concentrate on the differentiating parts of their apps rather than the undifferentiated infrastructure and engagement components.”

That’s a nice development feature that could give programmers a better idea of what consumers do and don’t like about application changes. From there, a developer could quickly adjust code for the optimal experience.

This new development feature is just another in a long list that Amazon has provided since launching the Appstore: GameCircle, a Maps API, Test Drive (Amazon says 20,000 apps can be consumer tested online for free), localization support, and a Kindle Fire emulator are all part of the developer experience now. And the better Amazon treats its developers with supporting tools, the better the apps will be helping to fan the Kindle Fire download flame higher and higher.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

iPad mini: A first video look at Apple’s small tablet

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:13:03 +0000

I jokingly said today that the iPad mini is here almost two years after I really wanted it. Props to Apple for realizing what I saw back then: The form-factor of a small portable tablet can be a desirable feature. My iPad mini arrived today, so here’s a video look and my first impressions of the new device. I bought a 16 GB Wi-Fi model for $329 but you can increase the storage or add mobile broadband capability as additional options.

Although I’ve only just started using the iPad mini, there isn’t much new in the experience because it runs all of the apps that any iPad can run. That’s a good thing. The camera quality is better than I expected so far and because the tablet is so light and thin, I could envision myself taking it everywhere; just as I did my with Nexus 7 tablet.

So is the 1024 x 768 screen resolution an issue? Not as much as you’d think, even though that’s the same resolution as the first and second iPad models. As I explain in the video, cramming the same number of pixels into a small screen adds some clarity. It’s no Retina Display, but it’s better than the first two iPads.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

What the shift to the cloud means for the future EPG

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 19:17:53 +0000

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Connected consumer third-quarter 2012

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 06:55:33 +0000

The third quarter saw many parts of the traditional media business in flux. New digital platforms that once had confined themselves to user-generated content began to invest in creating professional-quality content. At the same time, TV programmers began to wrestle with both the threat and the opportunity presented by second-screen and social-TV platforms. The period also saw the rollout of new device-based content ecosystems, red flags and red ink for traditional consumer electronics makers, and a resurgence of consumer purchases of movies. This quarterly wrap-up discusses these developments as well as offers trends and topics to watch for the remainder of 2012 and beyond.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.