is HOT!- Study Highlights
Retrevo Asked: Would you consider buying the recently announced 7" Android tablet made by Amazon, priced at $199 instead of a 9.7" iPad 2 this holiday season? (Respondents are people interested in buying a tablet)
- 44% of people said they would consider the 7" Android Tablet
- 44% said they didn't know enough about the Amazon tablet to make that decision
- 12% said no, they'd still buy an iPad
Retrevo Asked: Do you know what the Amazon Kindle Fire is?
- 35% said an e-reader from Amazon
- 32% said a tablet computer from Amazon
- 32% said they didn't know
- 1% said "something else"
Retrevo Asked: Are you planning on buying a tablet this holiday season?
- 20% of tablet owners said yes, an iPad
- 10% of all respondents said yes, an iPad
- 27% of tablet owners said yes, the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet
- 12% of all respondents said, yes, the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet
- Title: Why the Amazon Kindle Fire Could Be Hot This Holiday Season
URL: http://www.retrevo.com/content/blog/2011/11/why-amazon-kindle-fire-could-be-hot-holiday-season
By Andrew Eisner, Retrevo.com Director of Community and Content
The new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet is about to go on sale. Amazon claims they have received so many pre-orders they are building “millions more than already planned.” Apple has sold more than 25 million iPads to date (11.6 million in Q3 alone). In this Pulse Study, Retrevo looks at what consumers know about the new Amazon tablet and whether or not they plan on buying one.
Can Amazon Take a Bite Out of Apple’s Market Share?
It looks like this will be a very good holiday season for tablet computers with only 31% of respondents in this study saying they are not interested in a tablet. Out of the remaining 69% who are interested in buying a tablet or possibly learning more about them, 44% of them would be willing to consider a smaller, 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire. At the same time only 12% say they wouldn’t even consider anything other than an iPad. With this much “acceptance” of a smaller tablet and the large price difference, conditions seem right for the Amazon Fire to become a hot item this year. Although the study didn’t ask specifically about the Barnes and Noble Nook, the recently announced, $249 Nook tablet could also be an attractive alternative to an iPad.
Should Amazon Have Named Their New Tablet a “Kindle?”
The Amazon Kindle is a strong brand and a popular e-reader however, it looks like Amazon may have to spend some marketing dollars if it wants consumers to perceive Kindle as a tablet too. In this study, which was conducted after Amazon announced the Fire, the majority of respondents (35%) thought the Kindle Fire was an e-reader.
Does Tablet Size Matter?
Although size is a very subjective aspect of a tablet computer, it looks like a 7-inch tablet could be very popular. In fact, this could not only help boost Kindle Fire sales but also Barnes and Noble’s new 7-inch Nook Tablet as well as other smaller and lighter Android tablets. Perhaps there are a lot of iPad owners who feel the iPad is a tad heavy and difficult to hold in one hand because only about half the iPad 2 owners said the iPad was “just right.” Of course, that’s not to say there won’t be strong demand for 10-inch or 8-inch, or some other sized tablet in fact, we’ve heard rumors of a 10-inch (or 8.9-inch) Amazon tablet following close on the heels of the 7-inch Fire. On the other hand, iPad owners might be interested in a smaller, lighter iPad as well.
Dawn of the Two Tablet Household
We don’t know if families are tired of fighting over the iPad or the new $199 Kindle Fire looks irresistible but it appears that a large number of existing tablet owners are planning on buying another tablet this holiday season. To be honest, the numbers looked a bit high to us but that’s what the data revealed. Actually, the idea of the two tablet household is already here as we found more than 27% of iPad 2 owners indicating they owned another tablet. Curiously, when we include people who don’t own a tablet the number of buyers looking at iPads and Kindle Fires are smaller and closer to each other. Could it be thattablet owners are more likely to buy a second tablet this year than someone buying their first tablet?
Conclusion:
Up until now, no tablet has been able to compete with Apple’s iPad. Operating System confusion and lack of “tablet” apps on the Android side may have helped keep Android tablets at bay however, the iPad 2 is starting to show its age and the new Kindle Fire is about to make the scene with a very attractive $199 price point. As popular as the Kindle Fire appears in this study, whether it lives up to expectations on things like battery life, performance, image quality, etc, the picture could get brighter or less bright for the Kindle Fire. Amazon may also benefit from the timing of their tablet. With the iPad 2 nearly a year old and the iPad 3 rumored to not be available until next year (missing the holiday season), Amazon may have timed the launch of their tablet just right. We also think it’s interesting that the strongest competition the Apple iPad may experience this season could very well come from book and content sellers (Amazon and Barnes and Noble) rather than other tablet manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola.
About Retrevo Pulse Report
The Retrevo Pulse is an ongoing study of people and electronics from the consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo.com. The data for this report came from a study of online individuals conducted exclusively for Retrevo in October of 2011, by an independent panel. The sample size was over 1,000 distributed across gender, age, income and location in the United States. Most responses have a confidence interval of 4% at a 95% confidence level.
About Retrevo
Retrevo.com is one of the largest consumer electronics review and shopping sites in the world, helping people decide what to buy, when to buy, and where to buy. Retrevo uses artificial intelligence to analyze and graphically summarize more than 100 million real-time data points from across the web to give shoppers the most comprehensive, unbiased, up-to-date product information they need to make smart, confident purchasing decisions for electronics.
URL: http://www.retrevo.com/content/blog/2011/11/why-amazon-kindle-fire-could-be-hot-holiday-season
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