Word is in the street that Amazon is working on a new Kindle Fire 7'' that is supposed to go out late this year - for the unbelievable price of $99, which would make it the most affordable tablet in the market.
According to the rumors, the new Kindle would also sport a TI processor and have a 1280x800 resolution, like the current Kindle Fire.
In the business world, when a retailer drops the price of a product it can mean two things: either they are trying to clear out inventory, in advance of new products; or that they want to sell faster. Industry experts point that the Kindle Fire HD 8.9'' is not Amazon's most popular model, the 7'' HD is.
Can the price drop actually be profitable for Amazon? Based on IHS iSuppli virtual teardown, the manufacturing cost of the Kindle Fire dropped from $174 in November 2012 by close to $100, by shaving costs in the display and touchscreen.
Amazon is known to be a company that's not afraid of experimenting when it comes to hardware, and it has taken the Kindle brand and shaped it into a set of products that have conditioned the e-reader and tablet markets enormously. A sub-$100 tablet (of which the impact is more psychological than financial on the customer) could be the next step in the process.
This rumor follows the official news that Amazon will be lowering the price of their Kindle Fire HD to $199, while their non-HD predecessor sells for $159.
Nevertheless, Amazon has denied the rumors of the new, ultra-cheap tablet, saying that the current tablet is "the lowest price points possible for that hardware." But the tech frenzy community does not still rule it out, pointing at that phrase, "THAT hardware."
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