Amazon to whup Apple rivals when Kindle Fire hits UK
Brits' ideal tablet price: £250
Apple's tablet rivals will face "almost impossible competition" when Amazon brings its Kindle Fire to the UK, pollster YouGov has predicted.
Having talked to more than 3000 Brits about their fondness for fondleslabs, YouGov found that 72 per cent of punters planning to pick up a tablet in the near future said they will pick an iPad 2.
That leaves the remaining 28 per cent keen to get an alternative - including, interestingly, the 14 per cent who want a first-gen iPad.
The remainder segments as follows: seven per cent want a Samsung, three per cent want an HTC, another three per cent want a BlackBerry and the final one per cent want an Acer.
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.
That, coupled with Amazon's very strong brand recognition, will make it even harder for the Samsungs, HTCs, RIMs and Acers of the world to compete.
Amazon is selling the Fire only in the US for now, presumably to ensure it has the maximum number of units to sell to Americans this upcoming Holiday season. If YouGov's sample data reflects the broader buying public, Apple's rivals need to get more aggressive and make the most of Amazon's brief absence from the UK tablet arena. ®
COMMENTS
Re: it's all in the marketing
Key phrase you use: "simply selected the most well known".
True, and it shows that the rest are *not* as well known. And that goes double for Asus and companies like it. They may be well known by tech fans, but not by average folks.
Do not dismiss marketing: it's how you sell a f**k of a lot more kit than your competitors.
Not just the Apple price point
They tried to sell near identikit products, in HP's case with significantly reduced functionality, at the same price point as the runaway market leader. Amazon seem to be the first company to have hit on the idea of doing a device that is both distinct and priced attractively.
Unless Microsoft do something really amazing, my feeling is that it's a two-horse race from here on out. The interesting thing will be whether Amazon's forked Android slowly diverges from the Google original on technical grounds so as to make it effectively a different target.
Pricing
the Yougov result should be no surprise to anyone reading the comments here, on enGadget, and a million and one other places.
It is a mark of the greed and stupidity of HP, Rim, etc. that they tried to sell at the Apple price point.
I think the reason Amazon are not selling the Fire in the UK yet is because they don't have the necessary media deals in place. Opinion seems to be that they're losing money on the actual device and look to make the profit on the media etc. that the users consume on the device. So, without that in place, it makes no sense for them to release it in the UK.
Even so, I think a lot of people will be tempted to hold out for the UK launch, so it will still probably hit sales of other tablet devices.
Amazon will claim its because they have to change the language for non USA products. So, I recommend everyone in the UK who buys one of these send it straight back if it doesn't do 'British' English.
