There’s a fire, sir. - The Andromeda Strain
J.P. Morgan Internet analyst Douglas Anmuth, says Amazon will sell 5 million Kindle Fire tablets in the fourth quarter and expects to see multiple models in 2012, including 7 and 10-inch units and models with 3G radios in addition to Wi-Fi.
Amazons Kindle Fire will become to the video industry what the ipod was to the music industry, says Dan Rayburn. The Kindle Fire is a product that was developed to consume video and will be adopted by the masses, with video being front and center. Amazon’s Silk browser will be used to build full pages, including video, which should mean Amazon’s Kindle Fire will see crazy fast startup times for video.
The $199 Kindle Fire goes on sale Nov. 15.
In February, Amazon launched its video streaming service to take on Netflix. Amazon says its Prime service will offer 12,000 instant videos by the end of the year, more than doubling the Prime instant video title count since its launch. Netflix charges $7.99 per month — or $95 per year — for its streaming video service. Amazon Prime is a $79 per year service that entitles the subscriber to free two-day shipping on most products.
Meanwhile, Netflix’ missteps — raising prices and then flip-flopping on plans to separate its DVD business — have cost it. Shares of Netflix plunged 34 percent in heavy trading on Tuesday, a day after the battered movie rental company warned of more subscriber defections and mounting costs. Netflix shares have fallen 73 percent off their high near $300 in July.
Kindle Fire needs a cheap 4G plan. Few can afford another $60/month fee.
A wholesale agreement with Clearwire might make sense. Amazon may be waiting for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 series, the industry’s first LTE/3G multimode modem to be integrated with an application processor on a single chip (pdf). The S4 Snapdragon includes baseband support for both LTE and 3G, supporting all the common LTE frequencies between 700 to 2,600 MHz. Also runs Windows 8.
A 10″ tablet for $299, with a TD-LTE connection for $29/month could be explosive – sweeping over the music, video, news and publishing business.
Cheap 4G is the accelerant.
