Amazon sells devices at cost to promote its own ecosystem.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, said this in an interview with the BBC. Bezous stressed that the company does not profit from the sale of tablets and readers. But, importantly, Amazon, unlike console manufacturers, does not suffer significant losses on this.
“We sell devices at cost, so it’s a break-even business. We are not trying to make money on hardware, we want to make money using our devices, not selling them. When you buy Kindle Fire HD, you can use it to buy books, games, movies, etc. And it is on the continuation of our relationship with the user that we want to earn.”