Fire TV Overtakes Kindle Paperwhite as Best-Selling Amazon Device
In recent days, Amazon has launched two new devices on the German market: the Fire Phone and Fire TV. This comes ahead of the eagerly anticipated release of the next eBook readers and tablets, with the retail giant scoring a surprise hit with the previously overlooked Fire TV.
The device was initially supposed to be available at a promotional price of 49 euros, 50 percent cheaper, for several days upon its launch. However, Amazon withdrew the introductory offer after less than 24 hours—the demand was so high that the allotted stock sold out in a very short time. The TV box now costs 99 euros.
Kindle Paperwhite Drops to Second Place for the First Time
The demand was so significant, as shown by the current delivery date: “Shipping before January 1, 2015 is not guaranteed,” according to the Amazon homepage. Clearly, the online retailer did not expect such a large rush for the device at launch. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that getting the device by the holiday season is completely out of the question. After all, Amazon still has a few weeks to provide additional devices from other warehouses or by boosting production capacity. Amazon will undoubtedly pull out all the stops to achieve earlier availability because, given the resistance the company is facing in Europe, every opportunity must be taken to strengthen its market position and let no potential go untapped.
In any case, the TV box has now moved to the top of the sales charts, ahead of the Kindle Paperwhite. The eBook reader had basically held the number one spot since its launch and hadn’t been unseated by various tablet price cuts and other promotions.
This means the previously top-ranked eBook reader is now in second place. It will be interesting to see whether the soon-to-be-revealed new products will create a similar situation, or if the Kindle Paperwhite (which I expect to remain as an affordable high-end reader) will reclaim the top spot.
Unexpected Sales Success as an Opportunity for Customer Retention
What initially may not seem like particularly significant news for Amazon’s competition in the eBook sector could indeed turn out to be a problem over time. While Fire TV provides access to a variety of video streaming services, this support for external services should not obscure the fact that Amazon, with this small piece of hardware, aims above all to bolster its own ecosystem.
The Prime membership has been heavily promoted by Amazon Germany for quite some time, and with the Instant Video service, it’s naturally a central focus here as well. Subsequently, this will also affect the Kindle lending library (which admittedly isn’t as attractive in Germany as Amazon might hope), but also the ongoing hardware promotions that make purchasing eBook readers and tablets cheaper.
Ultimately, the TV box further strengthens Amazon’s position in the race for market share—not only in the video streaming sector but across all business areas. From Amazon’s perspective, this can only be welcomed as a strategy for customer retention, albeit it remains (or becomes again) a significant problem for competitors. Even if competitors might excel in other areas (which isn’t often the case at present), it could mean that customers will still opt for Amazon because the ease of content access, due to the extensive range of offerings, is simply greater. This allows the retail giant to absorb what seems to be flops and recover at a later time—a luxury many other providers cannot afford.
