The Kindle Fire 2 is rumored to ship in May or June.
As previously reported, Amazon seemingly rushed its Kindle Fire to the market using Quanta's off-the-shelf BlackBerry PlayBook design. The idea was to get the tablet on the market in time for the holiday season, a bet which obviously paid off, as the company sold around six million units in the span of just over two months.
Quanta also decided what would be thrown into the original hardware mix, ultimately costing Amazon $250 per unit to make. That said, while Amazon has taken a $50 loss per tablet, it has clearly made up the difference with software sales including Android apps, digital music, and streaming movies and TV episodes stored in the cloud. Needless to say, that $50 loss wasn't much compared to what console manufacturers lose per unit.
Still, Amazon plans to take over the selection and certification of components for the Kindle Fire 2 to lower the manufacturing costs. Hopefully this will also mean Amazon will make a few adjustments in the spec list to address complaints surrounding the current Kindle Fire including a lack of a microSD card slot, actual volume buttons and Bluetooth. And now that there's no holiday season demand to meet, Amazon can take its time and design the sequel to the Kindle Fire right.
It's really no secret that Amazon planned to release a sequel sometime this half of 2012. As reported last year, the Kindle Fire was slated to serve as a foot in the tablet door, with the meatier "flagship" tablet product to follow in the first half of 2012. The online retailer has supposedly signed on Foxconn as a second OEM to manufacture the Kindle Fire 2 while Quanta continues to pump out the original Kindle Fire tablet.
So far Amazon hasn't locked down a final list of specs for the Kindle Fire 2, but suppliers expect to start component deliveries in March. Thanks to the success of its first tablet, and prospects of larger sales in 2012, Amazon is expected to purchase parts at cheaper prices for the next-generation tablet.
Volume shipments for the Kindle Fire 2 are expected to begin in May or June, sources said.
I'm just guessing, but they are probably factoring in the R&D, software costs, and advertising/marketing into the $250. If I'm not mistaken, the $197 was hardware only.
Windows 8 to the rescue!
Moving to Utah does not prevent you from buying electronics. Just from using the internet.
i dont care at all that apple uses foxxcon, and i make that clear every time i post in those articles, you work their by choice, i dont care, if they are forced, i have a big problem.
that said, apple owes all of its success to the mp3 player, that they over charge for, the iphone, which they REALLY over charge for, and the ipad, which again, they REALLY over charge for. the only reason they make money is because of those items, because their pc side... well... had crashed and burned before, and turning it into a lifestyle product is the only thing that kept them floating.
that said, they have how much money? and they use what is close to slave labor... thats what people really have a problem with. its when slave like labor is used to create a over priced luxury product.
And buying alcohol on Sundays.
In the local economy Foxconn workers get almost double the average wage and commit suicide at a tenth of the national average.
...
Slave wages? Get a grip
ok, call it indentured servitude, what ever name it is, its close to slave labor. alot of what they are payed is duducted from the checks and used as living expenses, and at that point who knows if they are recieveing all of whats deducted either.