As I have mentioned many times before – I am a huge fan of the Amazon Kindle
But, more now than ever, it faces a lot of competition. The competition is not just on the tablets (for which the competition is very strong on) but also their e-readers as more people just read on their phones or other tablets.
Is Amazon Losing Ground With Their Kindles and Tablets?
Nominal Upgrades
There have been a few things that have been puzzling to me with Amazon and their devices. There always seems to be a refresh of the Amazon devices each October-ish and they get better with more battery life, faster screen refresh, etc. But, the changes are so nominal and incremental that it does not seem to jolt the customer base like when Apple or Samsung announce their new devices.
Obviously, Amazon made a huge error with their Fire phone (remember that? at least I got in on the fire sale sale with free Prime!) and the phone is down and out with Amazon. I wonder if the tablet market for them will move that way as well?
Affiliate Commissions Doubling
So, why do I think interest is waning? Amazon just sent out notices to their affiliates (which this site is one of) that they are doubling the commission on their e-readers and tablets. Amazon had changed their fee structure for affiliates earlier this year and they dropped the referral for their devices down quite a bit. But now, heading into the months of a normal refresh and the holiday shopping season, they are doubling the referral bonuses on devices. Why?
Obviously, they want to encourage their affiliates to push the devices more through their sites (I already write about them when sales come and will continue to do so) by offering them more money as commission. These devices should be selling themselves if the interest is high enough and the sales are good enough with the big shopping time. So, why?
Tablets Would Make Great Prime Additions
Personally, I think the Amazon Fire tablet, at least the entry level ones, are headed to become devices that are included with Prime membership. These devices are basically a free entry for Amazon into your home and life to push more of their products to you through their operating system and apps (Kindle books, movies, songs, etc) as well as allowing it to be very simple to order anything on Amazon. Amazon should be paying us for having that kind of access to us and our shopping sphere!
Could It Be?
So, here’s my prediction – we will see Amazon bump the price of Prime up in the next year or so to $119 and include their basic Fire tablet with every subscription. It is basically the modern equivalent of their circular so why wouldn’t they? In the meantime, they will use affiliates like me to try and help sell as many of them as possible.
It’s ok – I am still a huge fan of the Kindle! Also, if you see more websites pushing the Kindle devices than they did before, now you know why!
