Apple CEO Tim Cook unfazed by Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet

By on Oct 19, 2011 at 1:25 PM
Business October 19, 2011

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook sees no real threat from Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet. On Apple’s earnings call on Tuesday, Cook dismissed the Kindle Fire and noted that the iPad’s share continued to gain market share even while numerous Android tablets entered the market. “We’ve seen several competitors come to market to try to compete with the iPad,” Cook explained. “Some had different form factors, different price points. And I think it’s reasonable to say that none of these have gained any traction thus far. And in fact, as all of those competitors were coming to market, our share actually went up, such that in the June quarter, according to IDC, we were responsible for three out of every four tablets sold.” Read on for more.

Cook said he was confident with the products that Apple has coming down the pipeline. The “iPad mini” could be one such product — one that may go toe-to-toe with the Kindle Fire. Rumors have suggested the tablet may be smaller, or at least cheaper, than the current iPad 2. If a cheaper iPad does debut next year, the fight between Amazon and Apple could come down to each company’s respective ecosystem.

“Amazon is certainly a key player,” ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall said, noting that Cook’s statements were “a little dismissive” of Amazon’s presence. “It will be interesting to see how [Amazon will] ramp. But I wouldn’t want to go up against the Apple ecosystem. That’s for sure.” Amazon does have a solid ecosystem itself, however, which includes its own video streaming service, MP3 store, app store, Kindle eBook library and more.

Several analysts have suggested Amazon has a winner on its hands with the Kindle Fire. Strategy Analytics said the online retailer will sell 15 million units through 2013 and Rodman & Renshaw has predicted Amazon will sell 5 million units during the fourth quarter of this year.

If history is any indication, however, Amazon may be facing tough odds. Speaking during the AsiaD conference on Wednesday, Google’s Android head Andy Rubin said there are now just 6 million Android tablets “out there.” Apple sold 11.1 million iPads during the fourth fiscal quarter alone.

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  • http://twitter.com/GRZLA Grizzly Atoms

    Granted the Fire will not hurt iPad sales, it will definitely sell well.

    • Delusion FTL

      Yes it will, Tim is just playing the normal CEO role to downplay competitive forces.  Kids ask parents for a toy.  Parents see kindle fire at nearly 1/3 the cost.  They buy it instead.

      Will it overtake the ipad? no
      Will it sell more than the ipad? probably not
      Will it take away some sales that would have bought the ipad?  most definitely

      It’s also nice to see Tim be excited about ipad’s marketshare in the 3rd quarter alone.  What he didn’t talk about is that they went from ~95% market share down to ~70% marketshare year over year.  What will next year bring 50% or less??

      • http://vincea.twitter.com Vince Averello

        I see the 7″ Fire as the first shot across Apple’s bow with the rumored 10″ version being the version that will probably go head-to-head with the iPad. I think there’s more than enough space in the market for both. The one you get will depend on which ecosystem you’re more invested in. I’m an Amazon Prime user with no Apple stuff at all so I’m getting a Fire.

      • http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support BoyRetardedReport

        What kind of kid is dumb enough to think a Fire is an iPad? If a kid asks for an iPad the parents either say yes or no, i don’t know one time I have asked my parents for like a mac and received a windows computer, WHAT YOU PAY IS WHAT YOU GET.

      • V.N.

        Have you talked to the average person or kid? There is a downside to brand/model ubiquity. Plenty of people refer to their mp3 player as their iPod, and many will call any tablet an iPad. 

      • Ulysses Grant

        I have this feeling that iPad is becoming a genetic term.  If a kid wants a tablet, he or she will still say “Daddy, I want an iPad even the kid meant to just have a tablet.

        It is pretty sad because an executive manager asked me to get him an iPad. I got him one and realized that he doesn’t even have a clue how the whole thing function.  Peoeple just buy it for the brand even they have no idea how it works. 

        Sad….

      • Anonymous

        “What he didn’t talk about is that they went from ~95% market share down to ~70% marketshare year over year.”

        This is only true if you count against “shipped” Android tablets that are sitting on store shelves. In actual use, it’s more like 90% iPad.

      • Anonymous

        Dude, 95% of tablet browsing are iPads. What’s up? No browsers on the crapoids?

      • http://profiles.google.com/ejsu28 E.J. Su

        I have used at least 10 Android Tablets, two of those I use everyday. My browser setting is always set to “Desktop”.

      • Carmen

        That’s not proven as most reports talk about shipped devices and not sold devices. I’ve yet to see a non-Apple tablet in the wild, just on store shelves. I’m not saying they don’t exist in the wild, I’m just saying I haven’t seen one. (Although I haven’t been to a Starbuck’s or an airport in a while.)

  • http://twitter.com/whitmcghee Whit McGhee

    No reason why Cook should see Kindle Fire as a threat at all because it’s a completely different media consumption device targeting a mostly different consumer than iPad. It will likely do well in its own right and make Amazon happy, and iPad will continue to be tablet king for the foreseeable future.

    • Carmen

      I don’t think it is. I think the ‘traditional’ e-readers in Amazon’s new lineup are for a different market, but I see the Fire being used for Amazon Prime instant video, web surfing, e-mail and apps. Amazon built the AppStore practically for the damn thing and I think that they will maintain a healthy ecosystem that will allow the average user to get comfortable with the product family. i.e. They won’t be jumping on the ICS bandwagon soon, if at all.

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like RIM when the iPhone 2G was announced

    • Anonymous

      I’m sorry, but did you really just compare the CEO [and COO for most of the time] of the most successful (on absolute market value growth) company in the world, bringing, not one, 2 or 3 major new products to market, but 6 in the last 10 years)….

      to a company, that over the last 4 years has seemingly tried to prove they are idiots that got lucky once with the fact that no one was seeing the market potential of a portable 2 way pager that could easily interact with your corporate email?

      I mean… Reeaaally (in most Seth Meyerish voice).

    • rad

      That’s what I was thinking. RIM was at the top of the smartphone market when they dismissed the iPhone. Now look at them.

  • Devon Garner

    Uh-oh!! Everytime a CEO says something like this it comes back to haunt them. When a credible business comes on your block you don’t just dismiss them. You either say nothing and let it play out or you beat them until they get off your block. Isn’t this the same tactic MS took when Apple entered the phone business? Just wondering!

    • Anonymous

      Not really Microsoft bashed the iPhone, Tim Cook isn’t doing that. He stating that he is confident that Apple’s pipeline of products are competitive and realizes the Fire is a different class of device, for a different audience than the iPad & really most of the Tablets we seen like the Xoom and Tab 10.1, 8.9 are as well, the high-end tablet. Obviously he realizes that the Kindle Fire poses more threat to Android tablets.

      • Devon Garner

        Yeah that’s kind of my point. They saw the iPhone as in a different class. (Most of us did) It was not really a competitor to the “traditional” smartphone. Apple changed that and now it seems that Amazon is taking a direct shot at Apple. They are not competing with a copy cat but with an ecosystem. Amazon has a powerful ecosystem that truly rivals Apple. We will see if it catches on.

    • Carmen

      If you read the article, he’s quoted as talking about Android tablets and market share. He never actually talks about the kindle fire and BGR just inferred this information. B.S if you ask me.

      Also, some other guy talk about Cook’s dismissiveness of the Fire, but Cook never really talked about it.

  • GZ

    Why should he be “fazed”. As much as I hate Apple they will pretty much dominate the tablet market. Unless of course Windows 8 is really as good as described.

    • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

      Have you ever actually tried an Android tablet?

      • http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support BoyRetardedReport

        I have and it is complete shit. The only tablets I would buy is a WebOS, or iOS

      • Puz

        You really live up to your name.

      • http://twitter.com/ocdtrekkie Jake Weisz

        webOS is a dead platform with no apps, and iOS is a big phone. K.

      • GZ

        Yes I have, and like BoyRetardedReport said “complete shit”. Maybe ICS will help but for now Apple is king here and I’m a huge Android fan.

      • Anonymous

        Actually the Touchpad pretty much sucks next to iOS as well. I have both. It’s laggy and there are basically no apps worth getting at all. 

  • Anonymous

    Amazon needs to make a table with front facing cam to really compete with ipads.  I am waiting for Transformer 2 though

  • Anonymous

    Hey Tim, you might have been better off saying something like “Amazon is a player and we will compete hard to make sure we stay ahead.”  Don’t be like SJ.  Stay humble.

    • Anonymous

      he didn’t say anything about Amazon fire directly… he didn’t say it was junk.   he said that of all the tablets and price points thrown at apple, they are selling iPads as fast as they can make them…. They feel no competitive pressure to address the competition on price or formfactor.

      he is confident ‘the market’ favors the functionality the iPad presents, in the form factor… at the price. Nothing arrogant about that.

      I do think the Amazon tablets will be successful for Amazon, less so for Android (in an adsense), other than being a ticker for Android sell through.

      • Anonymous

        “…Cook dismissed the Kindle Fire…”  Sorry my bad.  He should have said, “Kindle Fire is a player…”

        Scary how these same words may have been spoken few years back by couple of guys named Mike and Jim.

    • Carmen

      He didn’t bash it or even dismiss it. Misleading title.

  • Anonymous

    that iPhone looks gorgeous..

    • Ulysses Grant

      Don’t judge the book by its cover.

    • Anonymous

      It is nice, that picture was taken 17 months ago, timeless!

  • Guest

    Precisely, they should not be concerning about Amazon, but instead about Microsoft Windows 8 Tablets.
    Currently, they are on high demand and users will likely switch to Windows 8 Tablets when Microsoft and hopefully, Nokia(tablets) will be available in 2nd or likely 3rd Q 2012.

    • Anonymous

      I just don”t think Windows 8 Tablets will be the Huge seller some people think they are!   

  • Anonymous

    Poor Tim. He has big boots to fill, and he has -1 charisma… even Bill Gates is exciting by comparison. I guess the Google boys aren’t exactly “magnetic personalities” either ;)

    • Anonymous

      Agreed on both counts.  Larry Page has the personality of a prune.  Sergei Brin’s a lot better but he seems to be fading away.  But yeah, Tim Cook puts me to sleep!  :-)  Doesn’t take away from the fact that his a smart smart guy.  I know, I know, my fellow Goofans (aka Apple Haters) don’t think he, or any other Apple Executive, employee or customer is smart, but on Cook, I must disagree with them.

  • http://www.facebook.com/DIVCorp Corey Fisher

    How come my comments are being blocked, did I do something wrong? I have never used abusive literature in any comments at all. Not sure why my comments need to be approved. I have brought up many valid points.

    • Anonymous

      Dude, calm down.  Some keywords get flagged.  It’s not you. :-)

  • Anonymous

    The only way the Fire is similar to the iPad is that they are vehicles to generate more revenues.  The biggest difference is that Amazon will lube you up first before the *explicative* you, since they don’t take all your cash up front like Apple.

    • Anonymous

      Apple makes their money from the Hardware!   If you look at how much Apple actually makes with the Store, it’s really not all that much!!!

      Amazon striped down a tablet to almost nothing!   There’s no Blu-Tooth, no 3G, No Camera;s, Only 8 Gigs, etc.   It can’t even run your Normal Android Apps.  Only stuff from Amazon.  I wouldn’t count on Netflix support as it’s direct competition to  Amazon PRIME for example.   I’m getting one t play with, but still plan to get a iPad 3 next year!

      You say Apple is tripping you off with high prices, and yet all the High end Android Tablets, from the Xoom, to the Tab, etc all are in the same Price ranges as the iPad!   So if Apple is getting you with high prices, then so is Motorola and Samsung and the others!

      The whole Apple is so much more is just B.S. these days.  Hell look at the Mac Air, others trying to match it feature wise and sell it cheaper isn’t working out, the Mac Air is a huge seller!   Apple just doesn’t build low end (Cheap) PC’s and stuff.   Apple builds higher end products.  This is coming from a person that owns only 1 Apple product.  The iphone4.  My 1 and only.

      • Anonymous

        But, my fellow Goofans (aka Apple Haters) tell me that Apple’s products are low end, but hi priced.  They tell me that the MacBook Air is perhaps the worst computer ever made and they use cheap components. Are they lying???  I hope not!

      • Carmen

        You’re my favorite character on here.

      • Anonymous

        Oh, thank you Carmencita!  @fcwilli:disqus  you are a fellow Goofan (aka Apple Hater) and as such, I love you!!!

  • http://twitter.com/harlizzle Harlimus Prime

    He’s not worried about the kindle fire because he’s worried about wtf he’s gonna do now that steve jobs is dead. sucks to be you tim cook, apple will crumble under your watch.

    ps: without steve jobs apple is nothing, so no matter what, it’s only a matter of time before android destroys the iphone.

    • Mac

      Are you always this retarded?

  • Anonymous

    140,000 tablet optimize apps with an entire ecosystem says Apple’s going to win this one. Not to mention Siri for the iPad 2 I’m sure is coming. If Apple’s slick it will release it just around Thanksgivings.
    Taking up any wind the handicapped Kindle Fire may have in its sail.

  • Anonymous

    TIM COOK= ANOTHER IDIOT IN THE CRAPPLE CAMP

    • Carmen

      Shouldn’t ou change your name to BBX, or whatever it’s called now?

  • http://www.DavidPat.com David Pat

    He also isn’t scared their stock dropped like crazy after weak earnings

  • Anonymous

    Fire will be Amazon #1 Book Reader/Tablet. and it will sell well. Apple is only afraid of Samsung.

  • Anonymous

    Apple is only afraid when someone like Samsung or anyone to take APPLE out of the #1 spot of the mobile market. And that’s when they sue.

  • Anonymous

    I am reminded of how GM dismissed Toyota and Honda and how they in turn dismissed Hyundai.
    I think it smarter to acknowledge the risk and affect rather than look like a fool

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