Amazon has seen great success with its Kindle Fire HD tablets, at least that's what its press releases say. Amazon has never revealed exactly how many Kindles it sells, but the Kindle Fire family of tablets is among the most popular Android tablets on the market. A new rumor claims Amazon plans on offering a $99 Kindle Fire HD 7-inch tablet, and the tablet is reportedly currently in production.
When Amazon entered the Android tablet market, it differentiated itself from competing Android tablets. Amazon decided to create its own skin on top of Android and take Apple's approach of selling hardware that directly ties into its own services, instead of Google's. Amazon even has its own Amazon App Store for Android; you will not find Google's Play Store on any of Amazon's Kindle tablets.
Amazon wants you to stay inside its walled garden; it sees Amazon hardware mainly as a vehicle to the services it offers, such as Amazon Prime, Amazon MP3, Kindle Bookstore and more. It was widely believed that Amazon was either breaking even or losing money on each Kindle it sold. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos confirmed to All Things D: "We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware."
Bezos went on to state that the success of the Kindle is measured by the amount of books and content Kindle owners purchase through Amazon rather than the hardware it sells. If the rumors are true that Amazon is readying a $99 Kindle Fire HD, it could certainly add some extra profits to Amazon's bottom line. It could also shake up the tablet market by forcing rivals to come down in price, if a $99 Kindle Fire HD is a success.
The $99 Kindle Fire HD is expected to feature the same 7-inch 1280 x 800 resolution display found on the current 7-inch Kindle Fire HD. It will allegedly be powered by the same TI processor Amazon currently uses in all of its Kindle Fire tablets. This rumor is looking more and more like reality. Amazon recently slashed prices of some of its Kindle Fire HD tablets, which is usually a sign that a company is trying to clear out inventory before it launches new models.
