Kindle Fire Buyers Get 30 Days Free Amazon Prime Membership

As if lowering the retail bar on entry-level tablets to $199 is not enough to generate sales, Amazon has decided to reward anyone who buys their first tablet offering, the Kindle  Fire 7 inch color touch screen tablet, with 30 days free Amazon Prime Membership. Amazon Prime delivers streaming video to the Kindle  Fire, and also provides free shipping on any items ordered on the Amazon retail website. This is usually a $79 purchase for one year’s membership, but Amazon is currently giving one month access free with the purchase of every Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon recently placed an order for an additional 1 million tablets, simply to fill the orders which have been placed since the device became available for pre-order in October. Although the sales figures have not been confirmed or denied by Amazon, leaked receipts and screen shots have accounted for 95,000 units sold the first 24 hour period after pre-orders were announced. Continued sales seem to be in the order of 250,000 units for the first five days, and if those numbers are correct, that support could lead to a much more successful launch than either the Apple iPad or iPad 2 enjoyed.

Accompanying the free Prime Membership trial period is unlimited Cloud storage in the Amazon Cloud system for all Amazon content, which effectively lends the Kindle Fire 7 inch tablet limitless storage space. With their massive digital content library, Amazon is able to make large profits on low cost, high-margin merchandise, and that is the reason they can release the Kindle Fire tablet at a retail price of $199, even though their own manufacturing costs total $209 and change.

Eight recent tech teardown revealed that Amazon spends over $209 to manufacture each Kindle Fire, effectively losing the retail giant $10 every time they make a single unit. Amazon stock has recently taken a hit due to this revelation, but you have to believe that they have done their math and due diligence, and this actually mirrors the successful marketing strategy they have used for their eReaders for years. Buy the Kindle Fire for only $199.

The Amazon Kindle Fire employs a customized Android operating system overlay, and comes equipped with a 7 inch multitouch display and anti-reflective treatment. Resolution is offered at 1024 x 600 pixels at 169 pixels per inch, and support for 16 million colors is present. The device measures 7.5 x 4.7 x 0.45 inches (190 mm x 120 mm x 11.4 mm), and weighs 14.6 ounces (413 grams). The Kindle Fire is a Wi-Fi only device.