Amazon is denying rumors that a low-cost $99 Kindle Fire HD tablet is slated for release later this year, despite speculation otherwise. According to SlashGear, an Amazon representative stated that the current price for the Kindle Fire HD is as low as it was going to go.
"It's not happening-we are already at the lowest price points possible for that hardware," said the spokesperson.
IDC Research Director Tom Mainelli noted that a surge of smaller lower-priced tabletd led his company to increase the 2013 tablet sales forecast from 172.4 million units to 190.9 million units.
"One in every two tablets shipped this quarter was below eight-inches in screen size. And in terms of shipments, we expect smaller tablets to continue growing in 2013 and beyond," said IDC's Research Analyst for Tablet Tracker Jitesh Ubrani. "Vendors are moving quickly to compete in this space as consumers realize that these small devices are often more ideal than larger tablets for their daily consumption habits."
Mainelli, via TechCrunch, adds, "The infrastructure is definitely in place for Amazon to go even lower. If they can sell the product at roughly what it costs to build, that fits their long-term vision to make money selling you content on that device. It's entirely possible - physically possible - to create a device that costs $99, particularly at the scale that Amazon would do it."
The rumor of a low-cost Kindle tablet arrives on the heels of last week's Kindle Fire HD 8.9 price reduction.
As Latinos Post reported, Amazon will be sending the 8.9-inch tablet to France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom while marking the U.S. price of the 16GB Wi-Fi version at $269 and the 32GB version of the 4G variant at $399.
"As we expand Kindle Fire HD 8.9" to Europe and Japan, we've been able to increase our production volumes and decrease our costs. Across our business at Amazon, whenever we are able to create cost efficiencies like this, we want to pass the savings along to our customers."
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