At the end of last week, Amazon announced that the number of downloads from its store has increased by 500% over the past year. The store would never have achieved these impressive growth rates without the release of its own budget devices.
The release of Kindle Fire last fall not only became a catalyst for the growth of downloads, but also a small revolution in the tablet market. The pricing policy of Amazon, which sells devices at cost, but earns money from advertising and content, forced most market players to reconsider their attitude to pricing. As a result, this summer we witnessed the appearance of a budget solution from Google, and in the fall – from Apple itself, which unexpectedly turned from a trendsetter into a company, they are the next.
The announcement of the Kindle Fire HD made no less noise than its predecessorThe position of Amazon itself in the tablet market with such famous competitors a year after the release of the Kindle Fire does not seem as impressive (against the background of competitors) as at the beginning of 2012.
On the other hand, the update of the line of devices, their release in Europe, as well as the appearance of the Amazon Appstore in Japan speaks of the company’s great ambitions, supported by good results.
According to the results of the third quarter of this year, Amazon was among the top three tablet manufacturers in terms of shipments. The company owns 9% of the global market. Please note, not the American one, where the company traditionally performed, but the global one.
The main thing is this content, Amazon realized, just preparing for the launch of its store more than a year agoThe success of the budget policy in Amazon’s native market, the expansion of the company into the world arena, the release of successful devices, all this provided 500% of downloads from the Amazon Appstore.
However, here we should remember the following: the Kindle Fire owes its popularity to the Amazon Appstore to the same extent that the tablet owes to the market. Roughly speaking, this is a certain symbiosis, without which there would be no success.
What will happen to Kindle Fire HD sales if Asus releases a tablet for $99 is unclearFor example, Amazon’s main competitor in the United States, Barns & Noble, released a budget Nook tablet at the same time as the Kindle Fire.
Nothing is heard about good sales or at least some solid share of it in the market.
As for third-party Android app stores, not all of them live happily ever after. Verizon, one of the largest American operators, is currently closing its store.