Is Kindle Fire Redefining the Market? – Part 2

As part of ChangeWave’s January survey, 254 Kindle Fire owners were grilled about their approval rate of the device.

When asked how satisfied they are with their new tablet device, 54% of Kindle Fire owners said reported being Very Satisfied and 38% Somewhat Satisfied.

The degree of satisfaction expressed during such surveys is highly predictive of future demand of the device. A high percentage of Very Satisfied customers will be reflected in high future rates of purchase.

So, is 54% a high rate? As for everything, it is a relative question and needs to be considered in relation to other ereaders competitors, mainly the Apple iPad, Kindle’s main rival with an already high market penetration rate.

                              *Apple iPad and Other Tablet Device ratings are from a November 2011 ChangeWave consumer tablet survey.

So, for the time being, Kindle Fire is trailing far behind Apple iPad but still ahead of the pack of other tablet devices.

So what are the plusses and minuses of Kindle Fire?

The Plusses

Two interesting factors in these results:

• Amazon policy of selling the device below production costs is paying, yet it will only continue if the planned earn back of loss income on device sale through a parallel sales of goods continues.
• The selection of books available is a satisfaction factor for 1 in five of the respondent. For us writers, this is an important number as obviously, the respondent who mentioned that as a satisfaction element are book readers and therefore potential readers for our books. If the Kindle’s reputation for providing a large book selection becomes prominent, this will increase the likelihood that book readers looking for a tablet will opt for Kindle as opposed to non-book readers for whom this is not relevant.

However, as opposed to Apple’s iPad, Kindle Fire is the first tablet released by Amazon and newer version will surely come in the future.

So what do users dislike in Kindle Fire?

The Minuses

Amusingly, the battery life and the screen size score both in the likes and dislikes, with 12% happy vs. 15% unhappy about the battery life and 12% happy vs.10% unhappy about the screen size. This clearly illustrates the fact that one cannot please everybody.

The main causes for complaint are the absence of volume button and of camera. Should Amazon remediate these flaws in subsequent versions of the device while keeping its cost advantages, it would gain points in customer satisfaction.

In any case, none of these causes for dissatisfaction are particularly relevant for ebook readers, at least while enhanced ebooks are still a small minority of ebooks, so, when shopping for an ereader, book readers are better of with the Kindle Fire.

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