The Cost Of A Kindle

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Here are a couple of breakdowns I've come across recently, showing the estimated production cost of the Kindle Fire. The one above is from the Wall Street Journal and pegs the total internal device cost at $143, but doesn't take into account a number of factors that the iSuppli chart at right does, namely labor and packaging, which increases the figure to a few bucks over their retail price of $199. In addition, neither factor in such additional expenses as software, licensing fees, or marketing, all of which would normally come out of the final retail price if the seller were only trying to make a profit on the product. But Amazon intends to make its money selling content for the device, not on the device itself, making the Kindle Fire more like a little portable storefront with an infinitely variable window display in which to show their wares. The Kindle Fire is, in fact, the Amazonian equivalent of a brick-and-mortar store, with a personalized bookshop in every house. Plus they sell other stuff too.