Kindle Fire Is Sold Out Forever 309
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from geek.com: "Amazon has released a rather bizarre bit of news today. The Kindle Fire has completely sold out. You can no longer buy one, and the wording of the press release suggests there won't be any more manufactured. In nine months on sale Amazon claims to have secured 22 percent of tablet sales in the U.S.. With that in mind, Amazon will definitely be selling more Kindle Fires, however, the next one you'll be able to buy will probably have a '2' at the end of the name. Jeff Bezos said that the Kindle Fire is Amazon's most successful product launch so far and that there's 'an exciting roadmap ahead.' He also confirmed Amazon will continue to offer hardware, but there's no detail beyond that." Also covered on Slashcloud.
Re:Slow news day? (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, most companies keep selling the old one until the new product is actually available though. Some even continue to sell the old model afterwards as a budget model.
They must have been subsidizing the Kindle Fire. (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the only reason I can think of that they would stop making money. It's like how Microsoft used to lose money on every Xbox sold, or Sony and the PS3. They wanted a foot in the door of the market, and their next offering will be something that makes them money for each unit sold, rather than losing them money.
I'd like to see.. (Score:4, Insightful)
An all season, outdoor weathersealed version. Probably won't happen, but it would be more useful to me than one which shorts out in a light drizzle (the ones they've been making.
Re:you mean until next week (Score:5, Insightful)
Hope it has a media slot (Score:5, Insightful)
I know Amazon is trying to get everone to store everything in the cloud, but I really hope they put a media slot (micro or regular SD) on the new Kindle.
I'm seriously considering the nook tablet over the Kindle or Nexus 7, because I can't imagine doing anything on a tablet that really pushes the CPU/GPU, but I can see needing more than 16gb of storage. And not having a nearby wifi spot for the cloud, or the patience to download everything over wifi instead of swapping out a memory card.
Out before the iPad mini (Score:3, Insightful)
Good timing for Amazon if they can sell out their existing inventory before Apple moves into the 7 inch device market. Perhaps Amazon has seen the writing on the wall. I expect many players will be forced out of the market.
If Amazon does a Fire 2 it will need to be more than a vanilla Android with a custom GUI. 7 inch devices are about to become a market requiring innovation, not just low pricing.
Re:I'd like to see.. (Score:2, Insightful)
An all season, outdoor weathersealed version. Probably won't happen, but it would be more useful to me than one which shorts out in a light drizzle (the ones they've been making.
Most people, and I do mean most people - read indoors when it's raining.
Hopeless edge cases like yourself are often left on their own to sink or short out.
Re:Slow news day? (Score:4, Insightful)
Or gain market share.
In the case of a Kindle, the expectation is you'll be buying eBooks from Amazon.
The reality is, selling it at a loss is better than having unsold inventory you'll never sell anyway. So you might as well sell at a discount and recoup *some* of your costs, or you just end up with junk and recover none of your costs.
Re:Remote deletion (Score:4, Insightful)
Why not just get a Google Nexus 7? It seems to tick all those boxes and is, IMO, a nicer device to boot.
Kindle Fire 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Slow news day? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think Amazon planned it this way. They stopped production on the older Kindle Touch and Fire, and sold-out faster than anticipated. That's all..... no grand conspiracy.
Re:Slow news day? (Score:4, Insightful)
The poster doesn't have a strange idea at all. Do you realize that if they're set to release in a few weeks and have run out of old stock that they can't just call up Foxxconn and get a few thousand at the same price point that they could get a few million? If they plan on releasing a better model at $199 it may well cost them most than 199 to have a short run produced.
you do understand large scale production, don't you? You do understand why producing a limited number of units may cost you more, don't you? You do realize that someone at Amazon can't just pick up a phone and say "make another 50 thousand for Monday." Don't you? You do understand that some of the hardware may not even be available if the same suppliers have retooled for a new product and new parts, don't you?
I'm amazed by how short sighted Slashdotters are anymore and how they dismiss another post with a flippant remark instead of having some logic to back up their ideas.
Re:typo (Score:4, Insightful)
The Kindle Fire 1" could fit in an eye. Prior art against Google glasses!
And they could call it the 'EyePod'.
Re:Remote deletion (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:get a real car (Score:5, Insightful)